Rebel Ridge (2024)
Directed by: Jeremy Saulnier
Premise: A Black military veteran (Aaron Pierre) is stopped by police on his way to bail out his cousin. The police seize his bail money under the guise of civil forfeiture. The veteran and the police chief (Don Johnson) engage in an escalating conflict.
What Works: Rebel Ridge mixes elements of the social justice drama with an action thriller. It is very obviously a post-Black Lives Matter story but the political point is embedded in the drama. It’s never didactic or moralizing. However, the premise is both credible and infuriating. Rebel Ridge imagines a man accosted by police for no good reason and the officers seize the cash he’s carrying to bail out his cousin. Civil forfeiture, which allows police to seize and keep money and property, has gained increasing press coverage in recent years and Rebel Ridge dramatizes the issue very effectively. After the money is seized, Aaron Pierre’s character tries to get it back and the film takes the audience through the convoluted legal process that makes reclamation virtually impossible. This reinforces the film’s political agenda while also serving the drama. Pierre’s character works through legal options before the conflict escalates into violence. This characterizes the protagonist—we can tell he’s intelligent, cool headed, and methodical as well as tenacious—and puts the audience on his side. The filmmakers take care to make the character sympathetic so that when the conflict reaches a crisis we are firmly with him both dramatically and politically. Rebel Ridge is extremely tense and it achieves a great deal of excitement with a minimum of violence. Aaron Pierre is terrific in the lead role. He’s tough in the tradition of action and western heroes but he also has moments of vulnerability. Don Johnson is the police chief and he’s intimidating and smug in a way that makes him a match for Pierre. AnnaSophia Robb is also well cast as a court clerk who assists Pierre’s character.
What Doesn’t: Rebel Ridge is not a shoot-em-up movie. Although it has a similar premise as First Blood, the picture is built around avoiding violent conflict which makes Rebel Ridge more tense and exciting than a lot of straightforward action pictures. But viewers should go into Rebel Ridge aware that this is not a John Wick or Rambo style action film. However, it does use one trope of that genre; Pierre’s character gets severely injured but he’s able to carry on as though it’s just a flesh wound. This is not unusual in the action genre but it works against the realistic style of the rest of the movie. The ending of Rebel Ridge is inconclusive. The characters flee to the next town in the hope of reaching a safe space out of the reach of local law enforcement but since the whole premise is built on systemic corruption it’s unclear why the story would stop at this point.
Disc extras: Available on Netflix.
Bottom Line: Rebel Ridge works both as a thriller and an issue drama. The political point is unmistakable but the filmmakers embed it within a compelling story. Rebel Ridge does exactly what a thriller and issue drama should do and it marries those components in a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.
Episode: #1013 (September 15, 2024)