Rating: 4.5 out of 5
NOT every film that endures a difficult production process turns out to be troubled itself. Hence, while Jeremy Saulnier’s Rebel Ridge may have taken an age to get to the screen (albeit, only a small, Netflix based one), it could quite possibly rate among the movies of the year.
A tough thriller with intelligent social awareness and crackerjack performances, including a star-making turn from British actor Aaron Pierre, the film comes flying out of the blocks with a gripping opening sequence that taps into a very American raw nerve, and seldom loosens its grip throughout.
But then Saulnier has good form for this kind of thing. His debut, Blue Ruin, instantly marked him out as a writer-director to watch, while his blistering follow-up, Green Room, was a brutally efficient thriller that memorably transformed Patrick Stewart into a psychopathic neo-Nazi.
Rebel Ridge opens with a cyclist named Terry being ‘pursued’ by a police car, which promptly knocks him off. The officers within promptly drum up false charges to justify their actions and conduct a search of Terry’s belongings, finding a bag of money designed to secure a bail release for his cousin and some seed money for a fresh start for both men.
But the cops swiftly confiscate the money, refusing to check out Terry’s legitimate story, using a controversial power known as civil asset forfeiture. With his cousin’s life hanging in the balance if he can’t make bail, Terry is forced to confront the police officer’s superior, Chief Sandy Burnne (Don Johnson), in the hope of securing its return. He even agrees to forfeit the majority of the cash, so long as the bail part can be met.
But Terry immediately falls foul of Chief Burnne and the force, unwittingly finding himself in the middle of a conspiracy involving the illegal receipt of funds. He finds an unlikely ally in a court representative (AnnaSophia Robb), who has endured a similarly torrid experience at the hands of the law, but in spite of their efforts to conduct themselves in a civilised manner, they are eventually forced to employ Terry’s hidden set of skills (he’s an expert in hand-to-hand combat) to put a stop to the many wrongs being done to them.
As Rambo-esque as the latter part of this sounds, this is not an action vehicle in the Jason Statham mould, but rather a thinking man’s thriller that deploys its few violent sequences with admirable restraint.
Rather, Saulnier’s script employs as a pressure cooker approach, constantly upping the ante between the main players, while examining personal motivations and questioning how far people will allow themselves to be pushed before they break.
It’s also set against a compelling and very real social backdrop of desperation, corruption and racial tension.
The latter is implicit in the interactions between Terry and the cops. But it’s left to bubble without dominating the screenplay. You just know it’s there, adding an extra element of spite to the lawmen’s actions.
What is placed much more closely under the microscope, however, is the abuses created by civil asset forfeiture, which largely displaces the burden of proof from a police officer’s right to confiscate personal belongings. They can do so citing merely a suspicion of illegality or ill gotten gain, rendering the victim powerless. Saulnier carried out extensive research on this before putting pen to paper, but decided it was an excellent concept upon which to base a movie.
The result is a film that feels real and frightening, by implication. While knowledge of some gung-ho approaches to shooting suspects by US police officers also heightens the overall tension of the film, especially when characters find themselves in confrontations. The possibility of violence is always there.
But it's here that Saulnier's script really comes into its own, too, creating as many exhilarating verbal exchanges as physical ones. And it's during these moments that Pierre (who replaced fellow Brit John Boyega during the aforementioned lengthy production process) genuinely excels - his quietly spoken, always obliging ex-Army veteran fully aware of the volatility of the positions he finds himself in, yet navigating them with a quiet restraint and force. And yet you can feel the frustrations and the sense of injustice growing within him, so that when he does finally turn to his particular set of skills, the payoff feels all the more satisfying.
Of note, too, are the likes of Robb, as his sympathetic colleague (a mother with a history of addiction, who finds herself swimming against the tide of the US legal system), and Johnson's sheriff, a wily but not over the top adversary, who deploys similar restraint in the 'pissing content' he is involved in, knowing full well how to manipulate the law to his own ends. He exudes an air of authority and knowledge that empowers him far more than if he were to reduce his character to caricature - you're never quite sure how he might react, which also gives him extra edge and notability.
The scenes between Johnson and Pierre are particularly electric.
If the second half of the movie sometimes threatens to get bogged down in the complex conspiracy of it all, then it's only a tiny shortcoming, for Saulnier picks up the pace and raises the stakes still higher for the finale - which continues to throw in unexpected actions en route to its genuinely satisfying conclusion.
This is filmmaking at its very best - evidence of a writer-director at the top of his game, capably mixing intelligent social commentary with genre expertise and fully realised characters. Rebel Ridge fully deserves its place among the films of the year.
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