11. Rebel Ridge, dir. Jeremy Saulnier
To talk about Rebel Ridge, one must first talk about Aaron Pierre. This is only his fourth film role, with the fifth being a voicing credit on Mufasa: The Lion King. (Fun fact: That was the first and the last time I ever talk about Mufasa: The Lion King.) Pierre stands out as deeply impressive presence. He has the physicality, he's got the muscle, he's got perfect cheek bones, and more importantly he's got those deep blue soulful eyes. Aaron Pierre is preposterously beautiful, and is blessed with the intensity to match it. I wanted to see more of him after his short role in The Underground Railroad, and I'm glad he has a full starring role in Rebel Ridge. He is a glacier of ice, a sublime beauty. Admire it from a far, but do not mess with it. When the glacier moves, it crushes all in its path.
Rebel Ridge is a big return to form for director Jeremy Saulnier. His previous works were also gritty stories set in the back corners of America, Blue Ruin and Green Room. The unique thing about his thrillers is how neither side, the hero or the villain, are ever fully in control of the situation. These are nightmare scenarios spiraling out of control, with every bad decision leading towards more violence. I disliked Saulnier's first film with Netflix, Hold the Dark, which led to a tough fallow period for this director. Something went terribly wrong with True Detective Season 3, where he ended up exiting as showrunner after just two episodes. Then we had five years of no Saulnier.
Something also went wrong with Rebel Ridge's production as well, where John Boyega was going to play the lead, then quit. That caused production to pause for an entire year. Aaron Pierre was the second choice to be our hero, Terry Richmond. You'd never know that this role was written for anybody else though. Nobody else could be this contained, this calm presense against such reckless stupidity and corruption.
Rebel Ridge is a modern answer to First Blood, the original Rambo movie. That was one about PTSD and local police bullying. Terry Richmond is an ex-marine CQC expert, but he's never used these tools he's mastered to hurt anybody. He's just a tutor who shows up in Youtube videos. Richmond has not seen war. The only war Terry runs into is our at home War on Drugs. Welcome to the 21st century, where civil forfeiture and qualified immunity are naked and obvious corruptions of the justice system. Meaning a local sheriff (Don Johnson) can strut around like a gangster and lead his whole sleepy little precinct to destruction by messing with the wrong guy. Presume invincibility leads to pointless provocation and finally, a lot of people getting hurt. Like many of Saulnier's great films, all of this could have been avoided if a stranger on his bicycle had just been allowed to ride to a courthouse with $10,000 in his pocket and get his cousin's bail.
The action in Rebel Ridge is a flashy fantasy. The way the real world works is that a corrupt sheriff like this will become the next governor of Louisiana or even president. Who is still pretending in justice anymore? But let's pretend for a second those things exist because this is a movie.
Terry Richmond's action is the opposite of fancy, the choreography is built around an economy of movement. He will disarm you in just two twists of your arm to maintain absolute control. He will not hit you unless you need to be hit. He will not shout unless he needs to be heard. Every gun needs to be unloaded before he makes his next move, his finger is never on the trigger unless he means to shoot. The gun is pointed downward, he holds the weapon in two hands close to his body so that nobody gets any ideas. This is efficient "less" lethal violence. Unlike First Blood, Richmond never kills anybody, not even the proud bastard of a sheriff who honestly, deserves worse. Even in spiraling chaos, where nobody is control, Terry can at least control his own limbs, and what violence he gives out.
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