"Rebel Ridge" is Netflix's newest hit

Around the middle of Rebel Ridge, a police thriller written and directed by Jeremy Saulnier that is trending on Netflix, the protagonist played by Aaron Pierre says, paraphrasing: “If you're trying to tell me this town is corrupt, you don't need to convince me.” This is because, from the start, it’s clear that there is something rotten in the administrative and judicial systems of Shelby Springs County, a network of silence and favoritism all directed towards maintaining, only for appearances, the good name of the district's police. Equally clear is that the film itself never hides its true intentions, aiming not only to show an infected suburb—quite a common condition in similar films—but to push both the protagonist and the viewers towards dismantling such a system, leading the narrative with the question: what will the protagonist do without even having a plan?

Meanwhile, the officers do everything they can to avoid shaking the foundations of a system they are willing to enforce with excessive use of force. This abuse of power is suffered by ex-marine Terry Richmond (Pierre), as Netflix presents a film that, while building a solid and familiar narrative mechanism, sets out to establish a tone all its own, stretched to the max, inviting the audience to follow the characters through an intricate investigation. The series of events is set off by an accident involving the protagonist, hit by a police car in the opening scene.

Caught with a bag full of cash meant for his cousin's bail, the man is “robbed” by the officers and forced to endure pointless and unjustified abuses, all for the benefit and profit of the police station. It’s also true that, in other and more politically correct circumstances, the conversation that opens Rebel Ridge might have gone differently. And so, when even the America everyone knows reveals its real face, an innocent man, with no prior record, with solid values and a history of serving his country, risks taking a bullet to the chest—just like we've seen many times in crime dramas, and far too often heard about on the news.

It’s the virus of racial discrimination that marks the beginning of Rebel Ridge, forcing the protagonist to question the actions of the police and ultimately dismantling their structure of violence and technicalities that have made others pay for the sins of the very same institutions. From the first sequence, one could already sense the social pushback against a group that often suffocates and accuses an entire minority based on skin color, an element that remains the central compass of the entire film. But as the story progresses, it delves deeper into a plot filled with field research and endless cunning, especially thanks to a protagonist who turns his original goal (delivering the money) into a greater objective (bringing down the glass tower). And if the police manage to get away with it again, at least “we won’t make it easy for them”.

Entertaining and deliberate, Rebel Ridge pulses with the calm readiness to explode embodied by Aaron Pierre, with the composed pride suggested by the character’s background, but also belonging to the actor’s presence and posture. Fluid and agile when displaying his martial arts teaching skills, yet firmly grounded, especially when showing superiority over those who know only how to use tasers, insults, and brute force. A solid film, which, starting from the well-known assumption of the genre (corrupt police), manages to create a meticulously crafted and sadistic intrigue. A movie that, like its characters, shows it has guts, both in fulfilling its duties as a thriller and in pursuing its own identity.