Jeremy Saulnier returns with a flinty, restrained crime-conspiracy thriller exploring small town police corruption and the one guy who they should never have messed with.
Rebel Ridge and Jeremy Saulnier’s breakthrough movie Blue Ruin, which was released more than ten years ago, are comparable in that they both deal with vagrants obtaining—or attempting to obtain—their pound of flesh. Despite this, Macon Blair’s role in that 2013 film is far less competent than Terry Richmond from Rebel Ridge, who plays an enthralling and fiery Aaron Pierre.
Additionally, this one is more surgical in how it breaks up its violent outbursts rather than being wall-to-wall action. Even still, the action is significantly less violent than in films like Blue Ruin, Green Room, or the vicious machine gun attack in 2018’s Hold the Dark.
This movie, which starts with a “legal” money seizure and delves into a much more complex web of systematic crimes and how they have been enshrined in American law, is a combination of revenge and conspiracy thriller. The conversation even discusses the horrifying militarization of the police, which permits and promotes the violence they frequently perpetrate, which is frequently racist in nature (“Civil unrest: it’s a growth industry”). The sleazy guy in the movie conspicuously sports a “Thin Blue Line” patch, illustrating the resentment that arises from feeling punished for being exposed.
“Six foot tall former marine who lives in the woods drifts into town, takes aim at local conspiracy while shaming bullies” sounds like a Jack Reacher plot, but Saulnier’s writing and Pierre’s performance are very far from the absurdity of Reacher and his dinner-plate sized hands.
Rebel Ridge’s portrayal of bureaucracy and even something as trivial as passive language being weaponized feels comfortable and somewhat familiar from the outset. The instigating incident, which was set to the heavily loaded needle-drop of Iron Maiden’s “Number of the Beast,” involves a police cruiser purposefully knocking Terry off his bike, which is reported as a “collision,” with a fictitious crime committed in order to seize the substantial sum of money that was on his person.
In addition to his meeting with the cops, who act like a gang in broad daylight, he has been forced to navigate an enraged maze of red tape in his quest to get his money back after numerous insults have been added to his wounded. Just like in the real world.
Terry is pressed for time, so the red tape is an issue. He is his route to post his cousin’s bail in order to save him from the perils of the state jail, but the local police department has now confiscated the bail funds. Although this film critic is not qualified to discuss the specifics of the laws at play, the ridiculousness of them seems dehumanizing and plausible enough.
This sentiment is greatly influenced by Pierre’s performance. The way he coolly composes himself with the command of someone who is definitely not to be trifled with contrasts with his initial helplessness and empathetic despair. He is totally mesmerizing throughout. Moments where Pierre delivers lines as if he’s had ice in his veins are made all the more rewarding by his performance and Saulnier’s methodical accumulation of purposeful humiliations and personal slights.
Zooming out a bit, Saulnier’s genre films have all applied their somewhat savage thrills to the sparse, open spaces of tiny towns in America, utilizing their remoteness to highlight an environment that is rather unwelcoming and frequently harsh. He was as skilled in cramped settings, like in Green Room, another irate, slender movie about fascists.
Rebel Ridge, however, has the sense of the movie that all of his earlier ones were building to, demonstrating the lessons learned from Saulnier’s earlier work: navigating stressful confrontations in confined settings and the fear of being pursued on the open road. He deliberately switches between these conflicts and the film’s irate unraveling of a dysfunctional governmental structure.
The problem is that, despite its flaws, everything is functioning as it should. These legalities have all been twisted to the advantage of jackbooted, arrogant fascists. Rebel Ridge is honed into a razor-sharp and unforgettable thriller by the righteous rage at this realization, ideally to the extent that it is viewed as widely as possible.
