Rebel Ridge
Aaron Pierre's star-making turn enhances Jeremy Saulnier's return to thriller filmmaking.
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It’s been a hot minute since writer/editor/producer/director Jeremy Saulnier unleashed a movie upon us – six years in fact. Saulnier broke out with the crime-thriller “Blue Ruin” (2013), cemented his status with the horror-thriller “Green Room” (2015) and made the move to streaming behemoth Netflix in 2018 with the mystery-thriller “Hold the Dark.” Saulnier’s latest thriller … this one’s of the action variety … is “Rebel Ridge” and it premieres on the aforementioned streamer this Friday, Sept. 6.
Aaron Pierre stars as Terry Richmond, a retired African American Marine traveling to the sleepy southern town of Shelby Springs in order to post bail for his cousin Mike (C.J. LeBlanc). Time is of the essence – Mike previously testified against a drug dealer and is due up for prison transfer. If Terry can’t spring him, Mike’s as good as gone in gen pop.
Terry’s unceremoniously welcomed to Shelby Springs when Officer Evan Marston (David Denman) strikes his bicycle with his police cruiser, injuring the innocent man. Marston receives backup in the form of the even more aggressive Officer Steve Lann (Emory Cohen). The officers proceed to seize Terry’s money (somewhere in the neighborhood of $36,000) under the assumption it was earned illegally even though it wasn’t.
Terry takes his complaint further up the food chain to superior officer Chief Sandy Burne (Don Johnson, playing against his Sonny Crockett cool), who’s of zero help and instead enters into a pissing contest with the former Marine.
Terry finds an ally in court clerk Summer McBride (AnnaSophia Robb), who’s sympathetic to his plight and willingly digs into the corruption plaguing the Shelby Springs Police Department, even if it puts her life and career in jeopardy.
An hour into “Rebel Ridge” I thought I was watching the movie of the year. It loses some steam in its back half going from outstanding to merely very good. It’s probably also 10 to 15 minutes too long.
Pierre, best known for playing Mid-Sized Sedan in M. Night Shyamalan’s “Old,” is a superstar-in-the-making who’ll be working forever on the basis of this performance. The dude’s got beautiful, emotive eyes, is physically capable enough to be convincing in on-screen combat (his Terry runs roughshod over these rednecks … methinks he and the movie should’ve run a smidge rougher) and comes across as one cool customer with whom it’s easy to have compassion.
Pierre is strongly supported by the equally likable Robb and the hugely hissable Johnson and Cohen (who’s at risk of being typecast after playing a similarly shitty cop character in Justin Chon’s “Blue Bayou” … I’d love to see this dude essay another good guy role like the one he played in “Brooklyn”).
“Rebel Ridge” feels like a social justice spin on “Walking Tall,” “First Blood” and “Reacher.” It’s a thriller that thrills and it’s got an awful lot on its mind, but sometimes I wished it’d dug deeper. It’s angry, but arguably not angry enough. This pulling of punches will likely make the movie more palatable to the masses. Either way, it’s nice to see the talented Saulnier back in the director’s chair.