Rebel Ridge

If all of Rebel Ridge had been like its first 50 minutes, it would have earned a spot in “the A movies” and made my top ten list for the year. When it takes a turn after its brilliant first act, and picks up a new subplot, something happens with the momentum, and it settles into an excellent daytime TV action movie for the remainder of its runtime.

I can’t praise the first part enough. I was breathless with delight and intrigue, as each and every twist, turn, and narrative corner had me all in. I paused it a couple of times to savor everything - believing I was seeing one of the most special films of the year, and I didn’t want to rush through it. You only get one “first time.” It (or at least the first 50 minutes) has a near Oliver Stone level of anger. It has something to say, particularly about exposing and taking down corrupt law enforcement practices that have been in effect for too long.

John Boyega (Finn from the twenty-teens Star Wars trilogy) was originally set to star, and even filmed some scenes - but he left the project abruptly, without saying anything (a family issue, his rep tells us). They ended up with Aaron Pierre; I know him as the rapper/singer Mid-Sized Sedan from M. Night Shyamalan’s Old. He carries Rebel Ridge with the diction and deliberate speaking patterns of Samuel L. Jackson’s Oscar nominated performance. (“I’m trying, Ringo. I’m trying…real hard…to be the shepherd.” You remember.)

The movie begins with Pierre’s character on his bike, traveling down a back highway with a backpack of about $30,000 in cash. He’s on his way to bail out his cousin before he’s transferred to a state prison. The cousin snitched on a prominent gang leader in court, so Pierre (as Terry) is in a hurry to keep his cousin from crossing paths with this guy in the big house. A police car knocks Terry off his bike. He’s not sure of the reason for the stop, and neither are we - but it ends with the two white officers seizing the money. It will feed the coffers of the local police force.

They naively think Terry won’t fight back, and will just go about his way, thinking he got off easy without a citation. He does. The dialogue dances in the opening 50 minutes. Don Johnson plays the slimy chief, in his best role since Knives Out. He gets into battles of wits with Pierre’s Terry. I love it when characters take some of the exact same verbiage and terminology used on them, and throw it back at the other person to turn the tables. AnnaSophia Robb (Words on Bathroom Walls) is wonderful as a court clerk who thinks she can help Terry, and so is James Cromwell (L.A. Confidential, Babe) as a judge. I won’t say exactly how they come into play, but this is a rich film that, for some reason, nearly an hour in, loses its delicious flavor like a stick of gum.

Rebel Ridge is the name of the area where the cops and Terry agree to rendezvous, and “sort this out,” finally. Giving the film that title is problematic because they end up meeting somewhere else. I was looking forward to an awesome last half hour at Rebel Ridge, and thought maybe the movie could pull itself back up to the level at which it started. It is a satisfying ending, if a fairly abrupt one. When all is said and done, Rebel Ridge is a pretty exciting movie featuring stars (and should be stars) with Pierre, Johnson, and Robb. It began as a much much much better one, though.