Rebel Ridge
Rebel Ridge and writer-director Jeremy Saulnier have both had cinematic difficulties in the last few years. Saulnier, for one, after his debut Murder Party in 2007, came to recognition in independent successes with Blue Ruin and Green Room in 2013 and 2015 respectively, bringing the director to mainstream critical acclaim and attention. Saulnier then turned to Netflix with his feature Hold the Dark in 2018, followed by dearly disappointing and underwhelming results in an often gruesome and stoic feature that remained far too meandering and slow for its own good. Ultimately leaving the director in a state of creative limbo up until around 2021 in which his feature Rebel Ridge goes into production during Covid with John Boyega set to star but to then mysteriously and suddenly depart from production during principal photography, leading to a complete shutdown and pause. A few years later, and the casting of rising star of Aaron Pierre (Old) reshooting of all Boyegas scenes has finally brought Rebel Ridge to the screens, albeit only the Oled and Plasma screens on Netflix. Thankfully, however, it has brought back the Jeremy Saulnier of old in a thrilling, subverted and greatly entertaining spectacle that cements Pierre and, once again, Saulnier as ones to watch.
The first thing to note here, along with the brilliance of Rebel Ridge, is its subverted take of the conventions on genre and expectations. It makes the viewer think they are watching a certain type of feature due to anticipation and social-political torments made to think the audience are in for another slice of tormented Rambo or the disgruntled Black man taking his revenge upon the world with devastating results, only to take all that pre-conceived and subconscious cinematic exposure to subvert and disarm it, is nothing short of pure brilliance.
It would be so easy for Jeremy Saulnier to craft this feature on total and complete devastation with no hope or consequence. To have Pierre’s Terry Richmond kill, murder, blow up and destroy everything in sight to appease genre fans. Yet, the subverted take here with Pierre’s character not even firing a gun at anyone to harm them or go on a path of self-righteous destruction is an even more profound and poignant tale of being the better and bigger person in understanding that a rampage is what they want. The system wants this character to explode, to feed into the narrative and bias of a black man going on a rampage to destroy the very system that is in place to keep everyone safe. At each and every step, Saulnier departs from convention and side steps what feels like the inevitable outcome with different narrative approaches that ultimately create a sincere result of unpredictability and immersion. Once that first narrative moment in the opening bike sequence occurs to detach from predictability, it becomes from that moment on one of the most thrilling and surprising creative stories seen in some time.
What makes this venture so rich is two-fold. The first is the aforementioned deconstruction of revenge and avenging in the social political world. The second is the conviction and talent of actor Aaron Pierre. To continue on from the paragraph above and the first point made in this paragraph, Saulnier writes this character as a skilled veteran pacifist that opposes and defuses the situation and enemy not only physically but verbally. Now, while this might sound anticlimactic and passive, it works utterly wonders to subdue the viewer and subvert expectations both for how Pierre’s character will survive this and how far he’ll go not to break his own rules. The set pieces and rolling tension are brilliantly staged and executed with both bubbling atmosphere and precision, each adding fuel to an inevitable fire that succeeds in fighting against the predictable.
What cements this and ties it all together is the performance of Pierre who is - without hyperbole - astonishing in this performance. It is a role that can be seen as surface level on purely external prowess with physical strength and texture, again both elements that Pierre strongly succeeds in evoking. However, it is the deeper internal execution that propels this into something else entirely. While little backstory is present for dramatic effect and for narrative engagement, everything the audience needs to know is in the eyes. Each small subtle detail Pierre provides adds weight to actions and set-pieces like a mathematician internally processing an outcome. Its exhilarating to watch because often enough it’ll be missed the first few times only for the audience to catch on and it acts as a small motif to signify the next ten or so minutes are going to be quite the wild ride.
Rebel Ridge pushes and pushes to an inevitable climax and yet still feels refreshing. After the underwhelming and disappointing vechile of Hold the Dark, Saulnier once again showcases what a terrific talent he is behind the camera and as a writer to craft these strange and wonderful subverted tales in a manner of unique aesthetic. Headlined with an equally as impressive and terrific lead in Aaron Pierre in what will be a performance to remember, Rebel Ridge is an exhilarating and engaging spectacle that deserved to be on the biggest screen but thankfully drops on streaming for millions of potential viewers to see the works of Saulnier and Pierre in the making.
