Rebel Ridge (2024) Review: Aaron Pierre Excels in This Tense, Though Heavy-Handed Action Thriller
Rebel Ridge, the first movie from Jeremy Saulnier in six years since Hold the Dark (2018), gets off to a promising start. A Black man named Terry Richmond (Aaron Pierre), a former Marine is cycling down the back road of Shelby Springs while listening to heavy metal music in his earphones (Iron Maiden, to be exact). He didn’t realise there was a cop car behind him. But somehow, the cop who drives the car chooses to knock him down off the road.
What happens next is a scene of two police officers, Evan Marston (David Denman) and Steve Lann (Emory Cohen) abusing their police authorities after confiscating Terry’s US$36,000 from his backpack. They have a reason to believe it’s money illegally obtained, despite Terry telling them otherwise and part of the cash is meant to bail his cousin, Mike (C.J. LeBlanc) out of jail. The gripping prologue sets the tone for Rebel Ridge as Saulnier effectively combines suggestive racial tension, small-town prejudice and the misuse of police authority. The latter two instantly evoke the opening scene of 1982’s First Blood, where Sheriff Will Teasle (Brian Dennehy) doesn’t feel comfortable having a drifter like John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) coming to his peaceful town.
Rebel Ridge continues to keep me invested with the story of Terry’s quest to retrieve his money by following the procedure. He’s determined to get his problem resolved after visiting the town hall, where a kind court clerk named Summer McBride (AnnaSophia Robb) tries to help him in whatever she can. He also stops at the police station, where he meets the corrupt Chief Sandy Burnne (Don Johnson).
Long story short, nothing goes as well as Terry hopes, resulting in him taking matters into his own hands. By 30 minutes or so, Saulnier finally showcases Terry’s military background of martial arts and survival skills, beginning with the brief but thrillingly staged scene outside the police station with his swift moves taking down two of the officers. The action is crisply shot and edited and I love the tactical approach that Terry uses to de-escalate a hostile situation. Saulnier doesn’t forget to slip in some darkly humorous moments, notably a scene where a police officer (Zsane Jhe) waiting for the station’s WiFi to reboot to find out about Terry’s background on the internet.
Aaron Pierre’s Terry Richmond, the role originally meant for John Boyega before he left the project due to “family reasons”, proves to be the right man for the job. Not to mention the perfect replacement and after watching Pierre in Rebel Ridge, I’m not sure if Boyega can pull off the same intensity had he remained on board. Pierre has that imposing height at 6′ 3″ with piercing eyes and a no-nonsense, steely look, playing the kind of a person you don’t want to mess with. He’s always calm under pressure and he can command a scene even with his soft-spoken voice.
An engaging protagonist like him requires the contrasting dynamic and tension of an equally compelling antagonist to keep the viewers interested. Rebel Ridge has that in the form of Don Johnson, whose morally reprehensible supporting turn as the chief of police of Shelby Springs made him a perfect foil for Pierre. His verbal encounter from the moment he meets Terry in the police station is nevertheless one of the highlights of the movie.
But then again, the movie unexpectedly drags more than it should at a protracted 131 minutes. After Terry decides to wage a one-man war against the corrupted police force of Shelby Springs, Saulnier isn’t interested in going the First Blood route. The story goes further down the road exploring the corruption and the underlying deep conspiracy lurking within the authorities in Shelby Springs. Saulnier, who also wrote the screenplay, gets too heavy-handed here in the second half with the stop-start momentum often deflating the pacing.
The movie does pick up the pace in the third act and Saulnier shines again in the action department. Overall, it’s far from a great action thriller that I expected it to be, given Saulnier’s impressive calibre in making visceral genre films seen in Blue Ruin and Green Room. Rebel Ridge sure has its moments, coupled with Aaron Pierre and Don Johnson’s top-notch performances.
Rebel Ridge is currently streaming on Netflix.
