Hot damn is this thing cathartic—a wishful-thinking action thriller in which a lone man goes up against a racist, corrupt, small-town police force and wins the day. Rebel Ridge stars Aaron Pierre as Terry, a former Marine who is stopped by police in a Louisiana burg while en route with cash to bail out his cousin. They seize the money; things escalate. Writer-director Jeremy Saulnier (Blue Ruin, Green Room) lets the racial tension largely simmer beneath the surface (Terry is Black), leaning into his trademark, straight-ahead propulsive tension. (Although a side plot involving AnnaSophia Robb as a sympathetic courthouse clerk detracts from the efficiency without adding much in return.) One wishes for more from Don Johnson as the police chief—he mostly seems exhausted by his own malfeasance—because Pierre could have used a more convincing onscreen opponent. He’s an indomitable force as Terry, remarkably calm and polite at first—even willing to play along—until he’s pushed over the edge. His terse replies begin to accumulate attitude, until he eventually explodes into the righteous avenger we’ve been waiting for. “Did I put too much sauce on that?” he asks a cowed bad cop near the climax. Pierre deserves to be putting sauce on many more movies after this.
(11/6/2024)
