There’s a distinct feeling that Netflix just can’t win when it comes to their exclusive movies. If they put out one of their glossy, empty, action thrillers or start packed comedies and they prove to be as empty and memorable as a particularly serious concussion, the streaming site is vilified for flooding the market with shit. However, when a serious filmmaker crafts them a movie that is not just good, but genuinely great, counter complaints arise that the movie is far too hood for streaming and should have gone to cinemas in the first place.
While Netflix is hardly liable to lose any sleep over this as it snoozes – Smaug-like – on a vast pile of riches, it can be frustrating for those people who desire to see good, challenging content on the cinema screens where it belongs, and the latest of these is tension-meister Jeremy Saulnier’s latest opus of teeth grinding tauntness: Rebel Ridge. But can the man who gave us the likes of Blue Ruin and the magnificently unpleasant Green Room still manage to keep things unsettling on a smaller screen?
We’re introduced to former marine Terry Richmond as he cycles into the town of Shelby Springs with $36,000 on his person as he rushes to bail his cousin, Mike, out of a local jail for a drugs misdemeanor. There’s a ticking clock in place because if Terry doesn’t get the $10,000 bail posted, his cousin will be transported to a state prison, which will be disastrous as Mike did some informing while in custody.
However, en route, Terry is stopped rather harshly by two local cops who ram him off his bike with their patrol car and then claim it was part of a police pursuit that Terry had no clue was even happening – but long story short, the two cops seize the entirety of the money as a civil forfeiture which, we’re told later, is shockingly legal. Stripped of the money he needs, Terry still heads to the local courthouse to appeal only to find out from sympathetic court employee Summer McBride that this sort of thing happens regularly and he that the Shelby Springs police department has become incredibly corrupt since the town essentially went broke.
Assuring Terry that she will have all the needed paperwork ready to go if he can somehow manage to get %10,000 from somewhere, the ex-marine goes to the police station to confront the deeply unsympathetic police chief Sandy Burnne – and this is where things start to get really serious.
Painted into a corner by a corrupt police force that’s uskng legal loopholes to augment their budget, Terry pushes back to try and find himself and his cousin some sort of justice; but when violence inevitably rears its head, both Terry and Sandy are locked in an escalating game of tit-for-tat that soon drags in the people in their direct orbit.
Talk about your defunding the police…
Saulnier is something of a master at drawing out unbearable tension from scenarios that feel horribly real, which is something anyone who has seen the remorseless Green Room will no doubt testify to. However, with Rebel Ridge, he’s moving into more accessible territory, swapping out, dingy clubs, punk rockers and neo-nazis for wide open spaces, a man seeking simple justice and corrupt police, but rest assured, the director hasn’t lost his searing touch for white knuckle situations.
Delving into the headlines which have detailed the call for police officers to be more tightly governed in the wake of mass reports of corruption, Saulnier fashions a script that is incredibly timely, yet never preachy as it examines how far they push their influence to the full extent that the law will allow in order to make money. In fact, the opening ten minutes of the film, whjch sees our lead essentially legally robbed after being knocked from his bike while listening to Iron Maiden, is a masterclass in unfolding a scene with an atmosphere as thick as lead. Everybody knows what is going on here, including us, but that stigma of two white cops harassing a black man with impunity is so ingrained in us, we’re utterly stressed out even before we find out that – shock, horror – everything the two cops did to hijack the $35,000 was completely and unbelievably above board. It’s this sense of blatant unfairness that immediately kicks of a frustrated ball of fire in your belly that steadily rises as Terry begins to find out that legally, he has less legs to stand on than a freaking worm.
From here, Saulier plays the usual action beats you’d get in a dime store Steven Seagal flick, but does so in such a controlled, muscular, subtle way, it feels utterly fresh and new – even that stock moment when the hapless villains discover who they’re really messing with after a quick background check (Terry teaches marines martial arts to such an extent, he’s on the fucking wikipedia page) proves to be one of the most satisfying moments in the entire movie. In fact, speaking of classic action movies from days gone by, Rebel Ridge is probably the greatest, modern, unofficial, updated version of First Blood that you’re ever likely to see as both movie not only contains a highly trained man try to claw back self respect from a power abusing police department, but he also does it while enacting a no-kill policy.
It’s this final wrinkle that make Rebel Ridge feel so different as Terry’s martial arts background is mainly to be used for de-escalation and disarming rather than snapping necks like the later versions of John Rambo went on to do. No only is it incredibly smart to not have our hero go for an extensive body count – the second he kills a cop it’s essentially all over – its also a refreshing quirk that adds a real sense of danger when he is playing by rules that the police soon aren’t.
While there was a spot of kerfuffle during the early days of production when original lead John Boyega dropped out, Aaron Pierce turns in a beautifully controlled, star making performance that’s loaded with cast iron charisma and genuine grit. Opposing him is Don Johnson who, with the likes of Django Unchained and Brawl In Cell Block 99, seems to have cornered the market in viciously corrupt authority figures and the tense, mock-jovial conversation both he and Pierce have in front of the police station sees both men operating at such velocity, their chat proves to be more menacing than the actual violence that follows.
While there’s admittedly a slight bit of drag near the end of the second act while the movie has to lead us through some more of the convoluted legal hoops police procedures to set us up properly for the final act, Saulier’s clench-jawed thriller delivers superlative adrenaline while keeping the brain fully switched on.
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