In Netflix’s new action thriller Rebel Ridge, a lone fighter takes on the entire corrupt police department of a small US town. That sounds like Rambo or John Wick, but director Jeremy Saulnier directs the battles in his film into a clever, surprising direction. Rebel Ridge becomes the streamer’s most positive surprise in a long time.
Rebel Ridge on Netflix unleashes gripping action that does not involve any deaths
In the film, main character Terry (Aaron Pierre) does everything he can to get his incarcerated cousin released from prison. He stays as legal as possible the whole time and quickly finds himself exposed to the corrupt methods of the local police.
Before half of the running time of Rebel Ridge, the first exciting confrontation between Terry and some cops (Don Johnson and Emory Cohen), who want the ex-Marine out of town as quickly as possible. A fight breaks out, which Terry, trained in a special fighting style, easily wins – without seriously injuring the police officers.
Instead, Terry and the film itself rely on close combat, in which the main character disarms or disables his opponent as effectively as possible without using excessive force.
Jeremy Saulnier thus undermines viewing habits that make one see Terry as a stoic one-man army from the beginning, who is guaranteed to resort to drastic measures or a merciless campaign of revenge starts.
The Netflix film does not fall into this trap and avoids being put in the same league as comparable films or series. After the first half, Rebel Ridge instead shifts the focus to a kind of legal thriller in which Terry wants to honestly convict the corrupt cops with the help of the court clerk Summer (AnnaSophia Robb) and bring them down with incriminating evidence.
Rebel Ridge doesn’t want to be a new John Wick and that is its great strength
The problem with the John Wick series is that the action from part to part craftsmanship so excellent and impressive was staged in such a way that similar films are almost doomed to failure when compared. Often, the result is just interchangeable run-of-the-mill films in which hordes of pale shooting gallery figures are mowed down and the action quickly loses its impact or force.
Rebel Ridge nicely sets itself apart from such competition by focusing on Terry’s non-lethal fighting methods and the race against time to legally convict the corrupt cops.
Action fans will also get their money’s worth with Rebel Ridge, because Saulnier stages the escalations precisely and thrillingly. However, the fact that the director has avoided previous explosions of violence in Blue Ruin or Green Room not be tempted to serve dull curiosity here toogives Rebel Ridge that certain something that many Netflix films lack.
Podcast on the end of a Netflix era: Films like Rebel Moon will never be seen again
Netflix is facing a turning point. Films like The Irishman or Rebel Moon are a thing of the past, family-friendly entertainment is in, and at the same time the quality of the films is set to improve. At least that is what some forecasts promise. What is the truth?
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What has gone wrong at Netflix in the last five years? Why are films like Rebel Moon a thing of the past? And what does the future hold? Jenny and Jan Felix raise these and other considerations in their discussion about the end of a Netflix era.