Recent Review #10: Rebel Ridge (2024)
An instant action classic that manages to avoid feeling like another Wick wannabe.
It’s pretty safe, or perhaps even an understatement, to say that action cinema has really stepped it up over the last decade or so, at least since the shaky-cam dark times of the early aughts. However, since Keanu Reeves changed the scene with a myriad of guns and one adorable puppy, the genre has been homogenized to a point where we’ve seen just about every approach to the John Wick formula, and it’s starting to grow stale. Call it the “Die Hard effect”, and it’s enough to make one miss the straightforward, heightened and borderline-goofy action flicks of the 90s. But apparently director Jeremy Saulnier feels the same way, because he’s returned from a brief hiatus to deliver a surprising and explosive tribute to that era, and its name is Rebel Ridge.
Saulnier’s latest thrilling genre exercise follows Terry Richmond (played by Aaron Pierre in a star-making performance), who we first see racing down a back road on his bicycle to deliver a wad of cash to pay his brother’s bail. His world is jerked upside down, however, when he’s hit by a police cruiser, and the two officers confiscate the cash, claiming it’s suspected “drug money” (using a loophole, by the way, that is somehow legal in real life). Now, Terry is determined to prove his innocence in the matter and get the money back before his brother, a known informant, is killed in prison. As he continues to agitate the police, he learns how deep the corruption goes and realizes he might just have to dust off the skills acquired from his mysterious past to make things right.
Rebel Ridge immediately finds director Saulnier in his comfort zone, kicking things off with an intense and morally frustrating extended encounter between Terry and the police. Most films would feel the need to set the stage well before this inciting incident, but Saulnier is clever enough to realize that meeting our protagonist this way, straining to maintain an impressive calm amid an undeniably infuriating situation, is just as effective. The film successfully presents us with many of the narrative’s driving forces, from its complicated political backdrop to the sheer force of Pierre’s gravitas, all in a mere seven minutes, while other movies might utilize the entire first act to cover that much ground.
From there, the screenplay refuses to slow things down, with each scene leaving Terry backed further into a corner, as his every attempt at negotiation with the corrupt cops goes sideways. Eventually, their ringleader, Chief Burnne (portrayed by a typically magnetic Don Johnson), pushes Terry to the point where he’s forced to reveal his training and background, in a scene that might just be one of the best of the year. It’s an absolute masterclass in genre filmmaking that gracefully walks the tightrope between satisfying emotional catharsis and crowd-pleasing camp. After this point in the film, one is left wondering where things could possibly go from here, but thankfully, Terry’s story has a lot more twists where that came from…and about as many bones to break.
Just like any other action flick, much of Rebel Ridge’s success is on the shoulders of its lead and relative newcomer Pierre does not disappoint. The intensity of his piercing stare is matched only by his ability to communicate emotion through subtle facial twitches and inflections. And when it comes time to introduce the enveloping shadow of small-town corruption to his clenched fist, Pierre is more than up to the challenge, executing tight choreography with an imposing physicality that hearkens back to the action greats of the 80s.
Pierre’s performance is further bolstered by the writing, which subtly paints Terry as one of the better written action heroes of the decade. Instead of relying solely on his easy-to-root-for mission, the screenplay gives him actual pathos and a strict moral compass. The ass-kicking he delivers would only be half as satisfying if the first act didn’t stress his unflinching affinity for pacifism. Even when all bets are seemingly off, Terry would rather spend an extra second dismantling his enemies’ weapons than use their bullets against them.
In addition to the depth Terry’s non-lethal philosophy lends to his character, it also adds a certain verve and suspense to the action sequences, as we find ourselves torn between rooting for our hero’s moral integrity and for the bloodletting of the despicable villains. Interestingly enough, the film manages to tap into a unique feeling of satisfaction from watching Terry continuously best his gun-toting rivals without ever compromising his beliefs. It’s a surprisingly untapped corner of the action universe that gives Rebel Ridge’s set pieces a fresh energy and something that genre fans might not have realized they wanted.
Despite being a mostly well-oiled cinematic machine, Rebel Ridge is not without its rusty bits. After the first act blasts its audience from a human cannon, the second lands us in a bit of a plot swamp. Terry teams up with the equally disgruntled Summer Mcbride (played by AnnaSophia Robb), and much of the film’s squishy middle sees the pair pulling on narrative threads to unwind a conspiracy that’s ultimately far less interesting than the revenge-driven A-plot. The duo’s chemistry is admittedly charming, however, and thankfully this section doesn’t drain enough momentum to lose the audience before the third act gets everything back on track in explosive fashion.
Truthfully, Rebel Ridge’s greatest flaw is that it was banished to the island of misfit content known as Netflix, and therefore can’t currently be appreciated on a big screen the way it should be. Still, it’s managing to get discovered, likely by many people who wouldn’t gamble the price of a theater ticket on an unassuming actioner, so there’s at least one silver lining that came with the release strategy. Either way, there’s already signs of the cementing of Rebel Ridge as a modern cult classic alongside Saulnier’s Green Room and Blue Ruin. And while it’s tempting to wonder what he might be capable of with a blockbuster budget, I personally think he’s doing just fine as a modern master of the middle lane.
4 out of 5 stars