Why ‘Rebel Ridge’ is a first rate action thriller
Intelligence and entertainment don’t always come in the same cinema package.
Underestimation can be a deadly endeavor. On one hand, the mistake could be thinking a friend couldn’t lift something heavy or doubting a person as they attempt to parallel park. The other side of the spectrum of underestimating someone is getting your ass kicked in the mind and body department.
For the Shelby Springs police department, messing with an ex-Marine means getting your asses handed to you collectively. When Terry Richmond (a star-making performance from Aaron Pierre) rides his mountain bike into town to bail his cousin out of jail, he is stopped and essentially robbed by the local authority. A frisk, cuffs, couple loser charges, and bent process leaves Terry $36,000 light.
The bail money is seized on some bullshit-infused charge, the kind of police theft that makes it extremely hard for a civilian to climb through the wormhole of litigation to retrieve the prize once it’s taken. Most people would scream and shout before running off to find a lawyer, but Terry isn’t like most people. He does locate a scrappy lawyer (the all grown up AnnaSophia Robb) in town, but moves at a methodical pace to strike back against his newfound enemies.
Welcome to Rebel Ridge, arguably Netflix’s best action film to date and easily its most wise. Written and directed by the esteemed Jeremy Saulnier, this is one of those rare occasions where this genre scores a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes.
What nobody in town knows is that Terry is a former Marine with a unique set of skills, and that’s bad news for the badges who take him lightly. Don Johnson takes his Brawl on Cell Block 99 warden, and shaves a few layers of brutality off; he’s so good at portraying a corrupt brand of power that changing it up at this point would be futile. Johnson’s Chief doesn’t despise or have a real problem with Terry, but a problem that doesn’t go away becomes a migraine for the poor Shelby Springs police force.
As a great yet corrupt detective called Henry Oak said, what’s happening to Terry has got nothing to do with rules and regulations, and everything to do with right and wrong. The sly thing about Rebel Ridge is that the police aren’t as completely morally corrupt like most movies with this kind of setup, which is a spice that kickstarts the plot in the second half of the movie. There’s more to it than a strong layer of racism and hostility colliding with our protagonist here; something that has more to do with a town bleeding money than simply skimming cash.
You won’t find many 131-minute action thrillers paced better than Saulnier’s latest banger. The writer/director shoots action scenes that aren’t dizzying yet enthralling, and knows how to add a little grit to the direction. This is a movie that you’ll think is solved in your mind early on only to find out there are some surprises in store. They aren’t “out loud shout” plot twists or a complete backstab, but more about the patience in how a scene unfolds or the arc of a supporting character.
30 minutes in, a standoff develops between Pierre and Johnson that has been a long time coming. How Saulnier and his DP stage and move that sequence from start to finish is unlike anything seen in film in quite some time. After watching this movie, “running out of letters” and “P.A.C.E.” will mean something different to you. It’s little touches and acts of intelligence that add a good amount of flavor to a dish that already packs a punch.
If you didn’t know who Pierre was before Rebel Ridge, it’ll be hard to shake his presence from here on out. Think Alan Ritchson’s Reacher in a setting similar to First Blood, and you have this kind of performance. It’s assertive with extra helpings of presence. The viewer never doubts he is this guy, and that he can do some damage.
Credit David Denman and Emory Cohen with adding a few layers to their roles, and Robb’s “never grow up” youthful face carries some pathos in her performance. Everybody brings it here.
A movie-loving film critic pal of mine, Nathan Flynn, also threw in Michael Clayton as a comparison to Rebel Ridge, and it settled in with a rewatch. Someone in a tight spot who knows tight spots well fighting back against a tyrannical force of some kind. George Clooney’s fixer threw all of his punches with his brain… Pierre mixes in some punches, kicks, and body slams to send a message.
All of it hurdles, relentlessly but with small breaks in the action, towards a finish that doesn’t stop moving until its protagonist does. Pierre is the energy, Saulnier is the engine, and Johnson and his officers are the spices that make Rebel Ridge something special and rare: an intelligent action thriller with 100% practical stunt work and a pretty plausible plot.
It’s too bad a film with that high of an RT score will be ignored by 95% of critics come awards voting time in a few months.