Running with Beto review – punchy political documentary glosses over grit
Beto O’Rourke’s senatorial run is put under the spotlight in an engaging if superficial look at the unlikely rise of a Democratic hero in a red state
“Gotta run like there’s nothing to lose,” nods a sweat-drenched Beto O’Rourke. The three-term congressional representative for the Texas border city of El Paso has just returned from a run in his Washington DC neighborhood. It is around a year before the Texas senatorial election but he has already launched his campaign, in which he will visit all of the state’s counties, host town halls and, eventually, gain national attention, with cameras present for almost every minute. The HBO documentary Running with Beto details the now-presidential hopeful’s initial rise to political stardom in 2018 as a classic David versus Goliath. narrative.