Rebel Ridge
A slow-burn thriller that subverts the one-man-army action tropes, Rebel Ridge is carried by a star-making performance from Aaron Pierre and a disturbingly grounded conspiracy plot.
Premise: After being rammed off his cycle by small town police on his way to post bail for his cousin, Terry Richmond (Aaron Pierre) has his cash seized by the police under the civil forfeiture process. Desperate to post bail for his cousin before his status as an informant puts his life at risk, Terry appeals to Police Chief Sandy Burnne (Don Johnson), but soon learns that this may not be an isolated incident.
Review:
The marketing for Rebel Ridge arguably gives the impression that this will be an action film in which a one-man-army, ex-special-forces type of hero will cut his way through a corrupt police force – a modern day take on Rambo, if you will. In reality, Rebel Ridge is much more sophisticated, intelligent and nuanced than that – although as a result, those seeking a high-octane adrenalized action flick may well feel a little underwhelmed.
Writer/director Jeremy Saulnier previously made the excellent 2015 thriller Green Room, but (thankfully) Rebel Ridge isn’t quite as bleak, brutal or traumatic as Green Room – but it does have similarly well-written, three-dimensional characters and unbearably tense moments. Even the opening traffic stop, when cops Officer Lann (Emory Cohen) and Officer Marston (David Denman) detain and search Terry Richmond (Aaron Pierre), is fraught with tension, as Terry (and the audience) are all too aware of the power imbalance inherent when white police officers stop a black man in Louisiana. Forced to maintain his cool and polite demeanour in the face of completely unjustified behaviour, Aaron Pierre’s performance in that opening sequence is the first of many scenes that he impresses in.
“…as far removed from the usual action tropes as you can get…”
The character of Terry Richmond appears to have been conceived by Jeremy Saulnier as the antithesis of a cliched action hero. Yes, he’s a Marine veteran, but he’s never seen combat and he’s not carrying any trauma from his past as is so often the case in these kind of films. He’s not a one-man-army after revenge, he’s not a selfless crusader fighting for justice, and he doesn’t kill a single person during the entire movie. Instead, he’s a realist and a pragmatist who aims to de-escalate any potential conflict as efficiently as possible – which is about as far removed from the usual action tropes as you can get.
But what makes Rebel Ridge so effective is that, thanks to Aaron Pierre’s performance, the audience is left in no doubt that Terry Richmond could cause some serious damage if he wanted to, but he chooses to exercise self-control for the benefit of the bigger picture, rather than being provoked into action by ego or anger. And he receives plenty of provocation, especially from the town’s Chief of Police, Sandy Burnne, played by Don Johnson. Don Johnson’s acting talent is often overlooked by those who only remember him from Miami Vice and Nash Bridges, but he’s great here, bringing genuine malice and malevolence to Chief Burnne, while also ensuring that he’s a three-dimensional character that has believable (and, from his point of view, justifiable) reasons for doing what he’s doing.
“…the way that the wider conspiracy slowly unfolds is very satisfying…”
In terms of what he and his police force are doing … I don’t want to say too much about specific plot points, as the way that the wider conspiracy slowly unfolds is very satisfying. What I will say is that it’s quite frightening how the US’ civil forfeiture laws are being abused by police forces in real life (essentially, enabling police forces to seize money and assets without necessarily charging their owner with any wrongdoing), and so the conspiracy plot in this movie had to go beyond mere abuses of the civil forfeiture rules in order to actually constitute illegal activity.
Reluctantly helping Terry try to sort out his legal issues is courthouse employee Summer McBride (AnnaSophia Robb). I wasn’t familiar with any of her previous work, but she’s really good here as she gradually reveals the different layers to Summer’s character, who’s attempting to reconcile her need for justice with her resignation that she’s powerless to change the systems around her.
“…a modern take on the Western genre…”
There are moments of action in Rebel Ridge, but the emphasis is definitely more on the thriller elements than the action sequences – although Aaron Pierre certainly convinces in the action moments when he needs to. In an era when Netflix are churning out disappointing and instantly forgettable action flicks like this year’s dire Trigger Warning, it’s great to see an intelligent action thriller that not only is a satisfying modern take on the Western genre, but also has something real to say about institutional abuses of power.
