Writer director Jeremy Saulnier won’t dawdle. Instead he dives straight into the action of his new thriller entitled “Rebel Ridge” and in case one has forgotten, the director of “Blue Ruin”, and “Green Room” remains one of the best filmmakers in the business when it comes to tales of good and evil’s clashes on screen. In the very first frame of the film, a cop car rams into Terry Richmond (there’s only one possible future for Aaron Pierre, who better get cast often), who has presently been knocked off his bike. The small problem however is that Terry is attempting to retrieve a substantial sum of bail money to release his cousin and that’s a fact which the cops would like to take advantage of so as to augment the corrupt operations of the Chief Sandy Burnne (a terrific Don Johnson) in their small town. These backwoods cops, played by David Denman, and Emory Cohen rather perfectly, appear to be just following routine and pulling something off someone they believe cannot put up resistance; They aren’t aware of Terry.
The canvas of ‘Rebel Ridge’ extends to envelop a court clerk, AnnaSophia Robb, as well as even tangential performances of Steve Zissis and James Cromwell who make an effort to assist Terry. But most of everything that you may ever want to grasp is almost in that single first scene which is such a great way to open a thriller. It is a prologue, shot gracefully by David Gallego and rhythm edited by Camille Timer, which captures the audience’s focus in an exciting way precisely by portraying realistic anxiety and casual fear. How often have these cops gotten away with this maneuver. And how could Terry ever hope to retrieve his money in time to prevent his cousin from what may be a death sentence due to the risk he will incur while incarcerated? Once again, Saulnier is concerned with the most basic of all themes: good versus evil (again, the punks Nazis dynamic of ‘Green Room’) but this time around he draws from 80s action flicks and classic westerns. Terry is the cowboy who arrived in an unfamiliar town at the worst possible time.
To his credit, Terry takes legal action, appearing at the courthouse as well as the police station in order to report being funny as it seems– robbed by the police. Which of course fails, leading to a brilliantly shot sequence where Chief Burnne realizes he may have over underestimated this particular adversary. (It also hints perhaps at the most appropriate use of Wikipedia in a thriller as this site is being used by one of the characters within the film only a second too late to understand who are her boss’s adversaries, Zsane Jhe.) Saulnier assiduously increases the intensity in each subsequent level until one manages to get the pleasure of watching satisfying shoot em up sequences that outstrip the genre editing of most contemporary blockbuster filmmakers. The great action sequences in “Rebel Ridge” well defined and always allow the audience to appreciate the layout of the surrounding environment just as how when the saloon and rooftops across the dusty road in classic Westerns transport the audience into the middle of the action. He is not really Rambo, although the “First Blood” review points would be unavoidable. However, Pierre SO STONED does quite a number on this character, channeling a great deal of I am serious no sarcasm. I was trained in how to be in the military which means make the plan and then go do it.
“Rebel Ridge” touches on many subjects, including a specific type of Southern racism that invariably misjudges its prey. But perhaps the most interesting and enigmatic thread is that of the evolution of corruption in the new age of policing. It’s about the astonishing, perverse realities of a system being mobilized as a firearm, be it the broken system of asset forfeiture or the structural manipulation of the single mother. A line here and a gesture over there implicate about soft modern philosophies of de escalation, but “Rebel Ridge” argues on the contrary that these techniques have only driven the escalation ones underground where it has deteriorated even further.
All of this is inevitably shot through with a bleak sense of humor, which is a signature of all of Saulnier’s films and which helps prevent this long, let’s face it, film from stalling. In connection with this, the first hour of “Rebel Ridge” is one of the best film hours in that year in film. However, after half time, it goes a little easy during the mid section. By that point, however, both Saulnier and Pierre have garnered enough goodwill to overlook the dip in the narrative.
Surprisingly unusual, I thought, is Saulnier’s triple threat of direction, screenwriting and editing, which to my mind is the best trait of “Rebel Ridge,” yet, do not underestimate the degree of difficulty in what Pierre brings here, striking just the right balance of desperation and determination. It takes the former to go up against a whole pack of well armed idiots in authority and the latter to pull off the victory. Pierre was impressive earlier in “Brother” and “The Underground Railroad,” but this is the best performance up to today from an actor whom I am sure we will continue seeing for quite a while.
Most importantly “Rebel Ridge” is simply a reminder of the unique artistry one would expect from the genre from such an experienced director. As we wrap up a movie calendar which is largely escapist and focus on the later months of the year which award season candidates grace the screens, it is reassuring to know there is a filmmaker called Jeremy Saulnier who is able to do both.
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