Rebel Ridge (2024)

Synopsis

It’s always a welcome relief when what sounds like your typical action thriller tempts you with the traditional tropes and then jerks them away. Writer/director Jeremy Saulnier does just this in Rebel Ridge, cranking up the tension as the plot unfolds and you begin to realize you can’t take anything for action-picture granted.

The first few minutes are maddening, as we see bicyclist Terry Richmond (Aaron Pierre) bumped onto the pavement from behind by a police car. We know what to expect. Richmond is black, the officers on this Southern backroads stretch are white. Predictably, their reasons for trying to arrest him and confiscating the $36,000 he’s carrying in a bag are all bogus. Richmond explains, calmly and carefully, that he’s on his way to post a $10,000 bail for his cousin, buy a truck, and start afresh. The officers twist this story around to suggest he’s involved in drug dealing. Yet, after giving him a receipt, they let him go rather than drag him to jail as we’re expecting.

At the courthouse in Shelby Springs, Richmond tries unsuccessfully to find a way to use that receipt as collateral to post his cousin’s bail. Nothing else he tries can convince the clerk to help. He’s got only a few days left until his cousin is transferred to state prison, where his chances of surviving are minimal due to previous run-ins with a bad crowd.

His only offer of help comes from Summer McBride (AnnaSophia Robb), the judge’s assistant, who can help him with the necessary forms. She later explains that confiscations of cash and other assets are routine, legal in the strictest sense, and never returned.

Richmond’s attempt to file a complaint against the police officers brings him literally face to face with Police Chief Sandy Burnne (Don Johnson), the very stereotype of the corrupt small town cop. Burnne accepts a deal with Richmond that sounds a bit too good to be true. And it is.

From here, events predictably spiral out of control as Richmond and McBride eventually work together to uncover the corruption that lies beneath the surface of the Burnne’s organization.

See It

The “spiral out of control” part of the plot may be predictable, but the way it happens is not. First, Richmond isn’t your typical action hero stereotype. He’s a vet, but turns out he wasn’t posted to Iraq, and though he has fighting skills, he’s not a former sniper or Black Ops dude. The confrontations he’s in are tense but don’t play out as the outrageous martial arts spectacle or over-the-top bloodbath disfiguring so much of Hollywood “product.”

Don Johnson is particularly good as the contemptible police chief who can spin a tale so convincingly that there are moments when you have to shake yourself back to reality to keep from buying his malarky. Likewise, Aaron Pierre is the perfect counterpoint, visibly straining to retain his composure and extract himself from unreasonable predicaments, but also returning that meaningful glare when nothing else will do. I wish AnnaSophia Robb’s character, the divorced and victimized mom who’s determined to do the right thing, had a little more agency, particularly in the final moments. But perhaps even that was supposed to be a counterpoint to the trend toward the badass, kick’em-in-the-manparts woman’s role. Still, couldn’t she have landed one punch?

It’s possible to pick a few nits with the contrived setup. Why would a careful guy like Richmond be bicycling with earphones blasting away, unable to safely hear approaching traffic? And why oh why be carrying a bag with $36K in cash instead of $36 bucks in his wallet and a checkbook or debit card?

Still, kudos to Jeremy Saulnier for demonstrating that action thrillers can be intense and captivating without descending into Rambo-esque excess. As the final frame fades, it’s easy to overlook that it’s not a perfectly happy ending.