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| Images courtesy of Filmrise/MVD Entertainment Group |
Jamaican music-video director and occasional feature film
writer-director Storm Saulter first got his cinematic start in 2011 with the
Jamaican wartime 1970s drama Better Mus’ Come involving the hiring of
gang members to enforce political agendas including but not limited to a
dramatization of the infamous Green Bay Massacre. During the time in between, Saulter kept
himself busy directing music videos for Jamaican artists before landing on an
unlikely inspirational sports drama integrating the gang and broken home elements
from his previous picture into a startlingly hard-hitting sprint runner drama
known as Sprinter. Co-produced by
Will and Jada Smith and co-written by Bob Marley: One Love production
manager Robert A. Maylor, Sprinter starts out as another one of those uplifting
sports dramas involving hardships at home and a tough coach before making a
hard right turn into criminality as the titular sprint runner finds himself
facing harder times with uglier mistakes than most films in this arena.
Rastafarian Akeem Sharp (Dale Elliot) has had it hard
growing up, estranged from his mother Donna (Lorraine Toussaint) who illegally emigrated
from Jamaica to America while remaining behind under his alcoholic father
Garfield (Dennis Titus). As he starts to
show promise as a track runner under the strict training of his coach played brilliantly
by David Alan Grier alongside fellow sprint runner Kerry Hall (Shantol Jackson),
his ascent to stardom is blindsided by the arrival of his brother Germaine
(Kadeem Wilson) a former track runner himself who turned to a life of crime
involving a phone scamming operation.
Picking up a sassy rich girl classmate Mira (Shak-Quera
South) as a girlfriend on the side, Akeem gets swept up in the gang subculture
of sexy women, drugs and illicit rave parties.
After learning his deadbeat brother failed to mail important school
transfer paperwork, Akeem hits a slippery slope to rock bottom including but
not limited to hastily trying to seduce Kerry Hall as she’s trying to help him
get a scholarship and getting arrested during a party raid hanging out with his
brother. Worse still, Akeem comes home
to a drunken father only to get pummeled in the face and show up to track meet
the next day with a black eye.
A formulaic by-the-numbers inspirational sports drama
populated by complicated, difficult characters, Sprinter isn’t afraid to
get its hands dirty as far as muddying up the already troubled heroes of the
piece. Take our main character Akeem for
instance who does not handle his taste with success well in the slightest,
immediately becoming conceited and feeling like a player who can act with
impunity. Surrounded by bad influences such
as his father who himself isn’t an evil man but is struggling with his own
demons or his brother so knee deep in crime he doesn’t even realize there is
wrongdoing at hand anymore, Akeem eventually succumbs and nearly burns his bridges
that led him to success. It would be
very easy to paint all the characters as boilerplate stock stereotypes, but in Sprinter
nobody save for the coach and Kerry Hall are all-good or all-bad with Akeem
nearly going down a Saturday Night Fever route to Hell.
Visually speaking the film lensed in panoramic 2.35:1
widescreen by renowned Mexican cinematographer Pedro Gómez Millán, Sprinter with
its hot orange and yellowish hues make Jamaica look painterly, idyllic and
sweltering. Scenes inside Akeem’s home
have an especially stuffy feel to them with boozing father not noticing the elements
anymore. Party scenes take on a
phantasmagorical look with multicolored lighting effects. And of-course there’s the use of drone
photography to show wide shots of Akeem running the track. The score by electronic musician Joseph
Trapanese who did the score for Straight Outta Compton is serviceable if
not overqualified, spattered in between needle drops of Jamaican anthems.
Dale Elliott in his first-ever (and so far his only) screen
role does a good job of conveying the physicality of the track runner from his
height, size and figure. There’s also
kind of an Earthy charm to the actor with his bright smile and long
dreadlocks. The actor is upstaged by his
co-stars with Dennis Titus and Lorraine Toussaint turning over excellent performances
as Akeem’s beleaguered parents and further still David Alan Grier and Shantol
Jackson turn over fierce committed performances as the only voices of reason
left in Akeem’s world. Special attention
also goes to Kadeem Wilson as Akeem’s troubled older brother and sports fans
will be elated by the unlikely screen cameo of Usain Bolt as himself.
Premiering at the 2018 American Black Film Festival where it
won Best Film and the Audience Award for Best Film and Best Director, the film
picked up by FilmRise and released on blu-ray through MVD Entertainment Group
is one of the most surprising and nuanced sports movies as character study of
the last few years. While ultimately
indeed following much of the trajectory of the inspirational sports movie
formula, it takes risks by daring to alienate audiences from the film’s
hero. At one point the character goes
past the point of no return and it seems like nothing good can come for him, a
rare arena for a sports drama to dwell in.
The ensemble performances are solid, the filmmaking is strong and while
you’ve probably seen this kind of film before, you haven’t seen or heard it
quite like this.
--Andrew Kotwicki
