Review: ‘Range Runners’ stokes the flames of survival -

The human mind and body are surprisingly resilient. Even in experiencing great physical stress and psychologically-grueling trials, we have a way of coping and pushing through the pain to the other side. Outlined with jolting personal traumas, explored through various flashbacks, the Philip S. Plowden-directed Range Runners weaves through one woman’s innocent-crushing past and her need to constantly prove her worth. With a script penned by Devon Colwell, the nearly two-hour feature jostles between firmly-rooted survivalist escape and slummy, drug-induced acid trip. Celeste M. Cooper, most known for her work on Chicago PD, centers the narrative as the beleaguered, yet monstrously strong-willed, Mel, who plots an ambitious, perhaps quite dangerous, trek through a 2,200-mile hiking trail.

Cut from a similar cloth as 2017’s Revenge, sans the rape-revenge arc, Range Runners is soaked in earthier tones and a reality-rooted drive. While it leans into the isolation of the woodlands, bringing the story down into a far more intimate-wrought sphere, there remains a grander, almost cinematic, polish to the entire piece. Even the camera work is less concerned with heightening reality than it is simply framing what is tangible and authentic to post-trauma stress and what recovery can look like. In the process, the story to redemption ultimately flies higher than you could predict. Cooper’s performance is an altogether vast array of emotions, which zig-zag from red-eyed rage to tear-jerking devastation to full-on carnivore mode, and along her path, both literal and metaphorical, the viewer engages with each of those character beats with colorful nuance.

While a considerable portion of the runtime flounders as a slow-burn in every sense of the term, begging the question if 20 or so minutes could have been shaved in the first half, the third-act pay-off comes with jarring and satisfying swerves. Co-stars Sean Patrick Leonard (as Wayland) and Michael B. Woods (as Jared) serve the purpose of inhabiting the stereotypically-egomaniac straight white man and the squeamish, trusty sidekick, respectively, but they do so with glowing tenacity that easily forgives a handful of especially bizarre story moments. Even so, the film’s final 45 minutes are as rewarding as you might expect and will undeniably leave you cheering (and maybe a little grossed out). Oh, there will be blood!

The film excels mostly because of the work of Cooper. From the start, Cooper’s Mel holds her world and those around her always at an arm’s length, permitting an almost emotionally-detached approach. But as the layers began to peel and crack apart, you soon uncover a truly maddening past, one that completely robbed her of youth, and the strength she hides so close to her vest. Themes of womanhood and personal accountability are very much rooted in her experiences, shaded with truth and care, and vibrate just beneath the surface. As outlandish as a few character moments might be, the film presents a clear focus on dissecting and shedding the past before it swallows you whole.

Range Runners premiered earlier this year at the Artemis Women in Action Film Festival on April 26 in Santa Monica.

Check out the trailer below: