Rebel Ridge

Rebel Ridge starring Aaron Pierre, Don Johnson, and AnnaSophia Robb is now streaming on Netflix. Written and directed by Jeremy Saulnier, this film follows an ex-marine who finds himself mixed up with the corrupt police force of a small town in Alabama while he is trying to bail out his cousin from jail. 

I really enjoyed this movie and felt that it was very well made. Saulnier did a superb job of telling a great story while also touching on real life issues. Additionally, Aaron Pierre did a great job as our lead hero and Don Johnson was an excellent villain. One critique is that I felt like the movie would have been more entertaining had there been more bloodshed. During the beginning acts of the film, it seemed like they were building Pierre's character up to be a sort of "one man army" type of hero, like Keanu Reeves in John Wick or Dev Patel in Monkey Man, when in reality that was not the case. This, however, did not take away from the story or the meaning of the film. I will go as far as speculating that if they had indeed created another John Wick or Monkey Man character, that it may have taken away from the meaning of the film. Lastly, the ending of the film felt a bit rushed, and I found it confusing the way things wrapped up so quickly at the end. 

Thank you for reading!