Who would win in a fight? An ex-Marine or corrupt cops?
“Rebel Ridge” kind of plays like a “Rambo” wannabe, as we follow a former solider who finds himself in a game of cat and mouse with bad cops. But it’s also a lot more than that would suggest. It really has you thinking about who these people are, and what system they’re all apart of.
It’s also a made-for-Netflix movie, and it certainly has better tastes than what “The Union” has displayed last month. That may have been a big hit for the streaming site, but that didn’t mean it was a fresh action movie. “Rebel Ridge” is a fresh action movie that knows challenges and a good character study when it sees them.
As the movie opens, set in the town of Shelby Springs, ex-Marine Terry Richmond (Aaron Pierre) rides his bike with his headphones on, which means he couldn’t hear the sirens of the police car behind him, which makes them knock him off the road. The two cops (David Denman and Emory Cohen) cuff him, threaten to taser him, and confiscate his money, which he honestly earned in order to bail his cousin Mike (C.J. LeBlanc) out of jail.
He tries to talk things easy with their Chief Sandy Burnne (Don Johnson), but to no avail. The old man displays his discipline, while the young man plays a game of wits with him. But only one of them has the upper hand.
He also makes friends with a court clerk and a recovering junkie named Summer McBride (AnnaSophia Robb), who helps him with his case, but they both acknowledge that Shelby Springs is corrupt. Even the judge (James Cromwell) is in on it. So, Terry must use all his skills to play their game and beat the system.
Written and directed by Jeremy Saulnier (“Green Room”), “Rebel Ridge” is explosively entertaining and thought provoking, as we start to have a lot of questions as the film begins. There’s a lot of racial profiling, considering that all the cops on the force are white, except for Jessica Sims (Zsane Jhe), and it goes deeper into what this small town is caught in. Greed, money, and power are what keeps it in balance.
It definitely feels like a modern day “Rambo,” when Terry is warned to get out of town, but when he doesn’t, he becomes a target by the police. And since this film also regards racial profiling (which is quite irritable in any movie), the stakes are higher. He’s an African-American ex-Marine and he’s an outsider in dark territory, so it would make sense. But he’s not the only victim of the town’s dirty deeds, as we also get to know Summer, her background, and why she works as a courtroom clerk. And the performances from Pierre, Johnson, and Robb are profoundly excellent and daring.
By the end, it almost plays like a western with the showdowns, and there are enemies who make better choices than we previously expected. I can’t say who specifically, but unless you pay attention to the shootings, it can be hard to tell who else is the good guy and who else is the bad guy. Now that really feels like “The Departed” in a way.
“Rebel Ridge” is one of the year’s most entertaining action films, and I know it will win streamers over on Netflix. Forget Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry in “The Union.” Pierre is the real action hero here, and he sure knows what he’s getting himself into.
Streaming on Netflix Tomorrow
