The Ranger
Director: Jenn Wexler
Writer: Giaco Furino, Jenn Wexler
Cast: Chloë Levine, Jeremy Holm, Granit Lahu, Jeremy Pope, Bubba Weiler, Amanda Grace Benitez, Jeté Laurence, Larry Fessenden
Part of: /slash Filmfestival
Seen on: 22.9.2018
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Plot:
Chelsea (Chloë Levine), Garth (Granit Lahu), Abe (Bubba Weiler), Jerk (Jeremy Pope) and Amber (Amanda Grace Benitez) are all at the same punk club when it gets raided by the police. The five of them make their escape together, but not before Garth actually stabs a police man to avoid getting caught with drugs on his person. Hoping to find refuge in the hunting cabin of Chelsea’s family, they set out for the woods. Once there, a Park Ranger (Jeremy Holm) gets on their case.

The Ranger was a bit underwhelming, I have to admit. It just didn’t really come together for me, although I did like the idea.

The Ranger is generally not the most original of films, though I did like the idea of a strictly rule-following park ranger facing off against a couple of (literal) punks. And the film plays fast and loose here in the best manner of slasher movies that don’t take themselves seriously.

But I have to admit that it wasn’t enough to keep me interested in the film all the way through. And as it was late already, I started to nod off a couple of times at the end of the film. So keep that in mind when I say that I didn’t understand the connection between the Ranger’s obsession with rules and the following of, and Chelsea. Maybe there was an explanation that I missed, maybe they were two completely different obsession that the Ranger just happens to have, but those two things felt kind of disjointed to me.

When I fall asleep during a film, I often make it a point to re-watch it, at least if I halfway liked it. In this case, I just couldn’t be bothered enough to do so and see if I missed something essential. The only thing I really wanted to see more of was Amber, thanks to Benitez’ charming performance and Amber’s characterization that was a little more unusual than the rest.

It’s not that The Ranger is an outright bad film – and it does have wolves, so there’s that absolute bonus – but it just doesn’t work as well as it should have.

Summarizing: Shrug.