Jeremy Saulnier, the writer/director of Green Room and Blue Ruin, is back with Rebel Ridge, a movie about a guy who tries to bail his cousin out of jail only to have his life savings unfairly taken from him by small-town cops who seem to operate with impunity. After calmly explaining his case and trying to get his money back, the man takes matters into his own hands — and that’s when the cops realize they’ve made a huge mistake: the dude they’re after is a former Marine, and he’s not going to meekly tuck his tail between his legs and weasel his way out of this situation. In fact, it’s the opposite: The guy becomes a one-man wrecking crew hell-bent on justice, and he’s going to make them regret ever getting involved with him.
Aaron Pierre, who was excellent in Barry Jenkins’ “The Underground Railroad,” stars in this film, replacing actor John Boyega, who left the project because of family reasons one month into production. Sometimes when I watch a trailer after learning about a scenario like that during production, I find myself parsing through the footage and trying to see if evidence of the problem is clear in the footage; thankfully, this trailer is so good that I didn’t even think about it once. Pierre looks incredible here, bringing an impressive physicality and intensity to a role that could help him break out in mainstream way.
Rebel Ridge Could Be This Generation’s First Blood
Are there enough articles over the years assuring people that First Blood, the very first Rambo movie, is actually a legitimate story about struggling with PTSD and a veteran reintegrating into society, as opposed to the cartoonish, gun-toting nonsense that the sequels became? Anyway, let me make that point again and urge people to seek out that first movie; it’s fantastic. But even if you don’t take my recommendation, you can get a very similar experience from Rebel Ridge, which seems to use corrupt, power-hungry police characters in a comparable way. Of course, there’s a big difference: Aaron Pierre is obviously black, and Sylvester Stallone’s John Rambo is white, so the dynamic between Pierre’s character and this
film’s top cop, played by Don Johnson (Knives Out, Watchmen), is going to be much more imbalanced than it was between Rambo and First Blood’s chief, played by Brian Dennehy.
Jeremy Saulnier’s previous film, Hold the Dark, was also made for Netflix, but that came out way back in 2018, which feels like a lifetime ago. Hopefully, there won’t be another six-year gap between Rebel Ridge and his next feature.
Rebel Ridge is already out on Netflix on September 6, 2024, and also stars AnnaSophia Robb, David Denman, Emory Cohen, James Cromwell, and more.