Rebel Ridge

              How often do you find yourself minding your own business, only for someone to try and pull you into something for no reason? I have done well for most of my life not to get sucked in, but if I did, I wonder how I would react. That is what is at the center of Jeremy Saulnier’s new film Rebel Ridge: when a guy just trying to take care of his cousin and is pushed around by the local authorities, decides to fight back.

Terry Richmond (Aaron Pierre) is riding his bicycle on some country highway on the way to an unknown location. He is listening to music, and while he can’t see it, there is a police car behind him with its lights on, trying to pull him over. Not noticing, the cop car taps the rear wheel of Terry’s bike, causing him to crash. Once he is aware, he tells the officer that he didn’t know he was being pursued and wants to know what he did wrong. The cop says he looks suspicious and starts to detain him, searching his person and belongings against Terry’s wishes. In the bag, the cops find $30,000, money that Terry was going to use to bail out his cousin, who is in jail on a possession charge. The cops take Terry’s money and let him go, but for Terry, getting his cousin out could be a life-and-death situation. At first, he asks nicely and then resorts to other methods, but the police, led by Chief Burnne (Don Johnson), have no intention of giving back the money.

Terry, trying to figure out what to do, meets Summer (AnnaSophia Robb), who helps him with information, but it doesn’t take long for Terry to realize he is going to have to take this to another level if he wants his money back. Saulnier, who writes and is behind the camera, makes Rebel Ridge a movie with layers of backstory that create a pressure cooker of a thriller about greed and small-town corruption. What looks like a standard ’80s throwback action movie, Rebel Ridge holds its cards close to its chest, never revealing the particular set of skills that Terry possesses. Unlike a lot of Netflix’s action offerings, Rebel Ridge has something to say beneath all of its action sequences — that maybe if we treated people with respect and empathy, society might be a whole lot better.

Not many people can make a movie like Jeremy Saulnier, as there is a rage to Rebel Ridge, like in his previous films. All the ingredients for a thriller are there, satisfying and smart in ways that most genre films tend not to be. With its tension always seeming about to boil over and a journey by a hero who is righteous, the entire film has a sense of purpose. Pierre is an imposing force, but also easy to sympathize with, and you can’r help but to root for him and hope he finds the peace he is looking for. As for the other performances, Johnson is once again so good at being bad, and he plays up the sheriff’s arrogance while still giving him quieter moments that show how good he is. Rebel Ridge is not just a good action movie, but a good movie, period. It creates a pretty exciting study of justice and how far a man will go to achieve that justice. I have been a big Saulnier fan since Blue Ruin, and once again with this film, he proves he is one of the best writer/directors working today.