One of the things I love about this job is that directors surprise me, it reminds me that not everything is a sure thing and that there is diversity in directing.
Jeremy Saulnier is a director I have come to reluctantly respect. His debut film, Blue RuinsI was so bored that I couldn’t finish reading it. His follow-up Green Room I enjoyed it, but as a person who is easily fooled by movies that just show Nazis getting punched, the movie as a whole was a bit lacking, but I was riveted by his latest film, a “Man with No Name” type action movie.
Thorleiner’s screenplay follows a similar path to many of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher books, but Aaron Pierre’s Terrance Richmond isn’t as burly or Holmes-like as Child’s Jack Reacher. He’s a fine, strong, silent type, though. It should be noted that Pierre, like Mike Colter, has the kind of charm that would make him a movie star in a more vibrant and interesting Hollywood. Rebel ridge It will be the film that transforms him into an actor.
Sadly, we live in an age where this film is being unceremoniously dumped on the streaming service that brought it to us, but Saulnier is a good enough filmmaker that there’s hope this film might shine. Rebel Ridge The lighting is good and Murgatroyd does a good job of lighting the PoC.
Technical achievements aside, Saulnier puts a twist on a familiar story: Terrance may be an ex-Marine, but he never saw combat. He trained his soldiers to fight in a mixed martial arts style. He’s no tank, no tactical master; he’s just a soldier well-trained in a particular field.
Similarly, Mark Harmon’s performance as Chief Shaffy Sandy Barnes, the sleazy sheriff who meets Terrance, isn’t over the top. Instead, Chief Sandy is just bad enough that you wouldn’t notice it if you weren’t paying attention. Harmon plays the chief without being overly villainous, which makes him all the more chillingly appealing.
Good-hearted lawyer Summer McBride (AnnaSophia Robb) also has some grey areas. She’s not a love interest or a woman in distress, but Rob and Pierre end up being the ones who need help, as they make it seem like they might be together. But Rob’s Summer isn’t just there for that outcome. Like Terence, she’s flawed. She’s a recovering addict trying to put her life back together in order to get her daughter back.
But it’s how Saulnier develops it that is really interesting. Rebel Ridge There’s so much in this movie that goes unsaid. This is not a movie made for an attentive audience. The racism that permeates Saulnier’s script is never named, but it’s there. The way Chief Sandy tells Terrance that when Terrance stops calling him sir, he stops wanting to help him.
The way the two sheriffs, Marston (David Denman) and Lan (Emory Cohen), give him a nasty, sinister vibe after running him off the road. Pierre’s Terrance says it all when he sees his face: He knows what it’s all about. His inner conflict of having to nod and say, “Yes, sir,” is at odds with who he is. Suareiner understands the difference between saying the words respectfully and when it feels expected.
Sue Reiner’s script, like all of these stories about strangers lost in a city, starts out simple, but then an intricate web of lies and deception begins to unfold. But Terence isn’t a great detective, so he needs help from Rob’s Summer to solve the mystery. The two have a steamy on-screen flare, but only sexual tension. But their relationship is unclear, and they never sleep together. The connection between them suggests they might at least be best friends. In a Hollywood age where people feel like they were brought together by an algorithm, it’s almost miraculous to see them hit it off so well.
If that wasn’t enough, James Cromwell plays a thankless role, providing a resonant voice for a man worn down by local politics – I miss films that cast an actor like Cromwell for one scene in the latter stages.
Rebel Ridge It should have been released in theaters. Saulnier and Gallego’s camera evokes the haunting charm of the rural South, a small town that feels simultaneously claustrophobic and one of the loneliest places in the world.
The scene in which the deputies Google the acronyms in Terence’s files and then have to reboot the Wi-Fi is funny and accurate, a clever nod and reworking of the obligatory scene in which the bad guys realize they’ve messed with the wrong guy.
Atmosphere Rebel Ridge Just as important as the charisma that emanates from the frame is Soriner’s Rebel Ridge It feels almost contemplative compared to a lot of action movies these days, and while it’s definitely an action movie, there isn’t much action in it. Instead, Pierre, Rob and Harmon are responsible for the explosions.
Soriner injects a sense of fatalism Rebel RidgeDavid Gallego’s camera offers an almost meditative look at the plot’s unravelling. Rambo Obviously a pioneer, Burt Reynolds’ movies White Lightning and Gator It fits the bill: Saulnier and Gallego seem to be channeling the same Southern melancholy, only Pierre’s blackface adds a tinge of commentary to it.
There are whispers of something more in the clever one-on-ones and sweet gestures. Rebel Ridge It’s the idea that you can’t reform something as corrupt as the police or the justice system, that a few good people can’t stand up to bad people who abuse their power.
This isn’t nihilism so much as a kind of understanding that the root causes of these problems are inherent in the system itself (not to mention a healthy outrage at the overuse of civil forfeiture that many police departments have used).
At least in the film’s final scene, Soriner feels compelled to resign Terence and Summer to their fate in a system he knows will easily corrupt them. Perhaps this is Soriner’s way of voicing his all-too-American cry of “what else can we do?” We know it’s terrible, but we’re powerless to change it or stop it. There’s nothing we can do that requires willpower.
As a result, the ending feels satisfying but anticlimactic — but maybe that’s the point of asking what a satisfying ending looks like: it works well, but doesn’t have the same impact as the rest of the film.
Rebel Ridge is a film that unfolds slowly, with a deliberate intent. Saulnier takes a story as old as the Grampian hills and finds a way to breathe new life into its crevices. Movies with “man with no name” plots are surprisingly difficult to pull off. These stories follow the same pattern: a stranger walks into town and is soon caught up in a web of corruption and violence. It sounds simple on paper, but it takes multiple viewings to appreciate a film like this. Rebel Ridge.
Image courtesy of Netflix
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