Philip S. Plowden’s directorial debut is a combination of a survival story and feminist coming-of-age tale, but though reasonably well-made it is less inspiring than depressing because it turns into a bloody, clumsy thriller marred by horror-movie twists. Its primary strength lies in the lead performance of Celeste M. Cooper as Mel, a young woman who as a child (Mariah Sydnei Gordon) was trained hard by her father (Carl Clemons-Hopkins), an ex-military man with a drill sergeant mentality, to aim for a possible spot on the Olympic track team. His single-minded obsession with her speed caused a rift with her sister (Tiffany Renee Johnson) which has still not healed. Now that her father is gone, she continues to run, but alone, and over long distances—a symbolic effort to escape his lingering control.
Mel embarks on a journey that will take her over hundreds of miles of rough forest, but her progress is interrupted by a meeting with two men on the trail. One is Jared (Michael B. Woods), a nerdy type who has injured his foot and begs her to help him. The other is Wayland (Sean Patrick Leonard), a beefy, thuggish type whose attempts to project a friendly attitude are transparently false. Mel senses trouble, but they follow her to the campsite she sets up for the night, and when she tries to leave in the morning, attack her, steal her backpack and tie her up, leaving her to die. She frees herself and, rather than reversing course, follows them, determined to retrieve her property for reasons that will be revealed only in the movie’s final scene.
Catching up to them, she turns the tables, grabbing their backpack, which—of course—contains something precious, and though she suffers a serious injury in a fight with Waylon, she ruins their criminal plans in the process. Limping toward safety, she is lucky enough to encounter a sympathetic cop (Sarah Charipar), but a narrative twist forces her into an extended final confrontation with the men, which becomes extremely brutal and gory. Though she survives, Mel is hardly triumphant; instead, the grueling experience serves as a means of achieving a kind of closure in her love-hate relationship with her demanding father. What holds one’s attention throughout the film is Cooper, who makes the tortured young woman credible, both emotionally and physically. Unfortunately, the other actors are not in her league, with Leonard and Charipar coming off as particularly amateurish, while Devon Colwell’s script and Plowden’s direction stumble badly at several points, especially toward the close. Nonetheless, Range Runners does deliver considerable visceral excitement and can be recommended as an optional purchase. (F. Swietek)