There’s no more mercurial identifier in entertainment these days than “Netflix original.” You have the greats like Hit Man and May December, the faceplants like Rebel Moon and Atlas, and then you have The Umbrella Academy, which held strong for years before grinding to a vomit-inducing halt in its final season.
Indeed, good or bad, the term “Netflix original” almost always promises strong feelings, but the streamer’s forays into action thriller territory seem more prone to disappointment than most. Between Heart of Stone, The Gray Man, The Union, Trigger Warning, and countless others, you’d be forgiven for tuning out this particular Netflix enterprise in its entirety.
But now, you’d also be sorry for doing so, because not even a week ago did Netflix unleash Rebel Ridge onto the world, and Rebel Ridge happens to be a Netflix original action thriller that’s actually good. It’s so good, in fact, that we can almost forgive the never-ending conveyor belt of glut that came before it.
The cherry on top? Everyone’s buying into this achievement. Per FlixPatrol, Rebel Ridge continues to soar on the global Netflix Top 10 film charts, keeping the number one spot locked in by quite some distance as of Sept. 11.
The film stars Aaron Pierre (Krypton, Mufasa: The Lion King) as Terry Richmond, a former Marine and jiu jitsu instructor who gets wrapped up in an abominable conspiracy involving a corrupt police force.
Rebel Ridge sets itself apart from its contemporaries with its much more cerebral approach to the genre. Terry doesn’t rack up a body count over the course of the film’s runtime, nor is the narrative chiefly about him and his struggles at all. Instead, Rebel Ridge is interested in taking aim at the systems that plunge so many people into desperate situations; systems that are happy to bend the rules to fit its own desires, but throw a tantrum when someone doesn’t allow those rules to get in the way of what they need (note the use of “desires” versus “need” there).
It takes its time doing so as well. Jeremy Saulnier’s intelligent screenplay makes direct reference to all the loopholes and technicalities and legal jargon that have helped create this quaint little hellscape, all without losing sight of the system that forces our antagonists into the decisions they make. The film never once excuses the corrupt players for their complicity in the system, but it also never lets us forget that this system ultimately wants to make victims out of everybody.
Terry is equally revolutionary as a protagonist, as he’s not a character that we’re meant to emotionally invest in (that honor goes to his ally Summer McBride, played by AnnaSophia Robb). Instead, Terry is both sledgehammer and scalpel when it comes to dissecting the foundational frailty of these systems. He’s constantly evaluating the surroundings that the corrupt officers can afford to take for granted, and he’s just as frequently manipulating that environment for his own safety. The fact that this environment seems so ordinary only makes his plight that much more unnerving; what terrible things could be hiding beneath any given sleepy, small-town backdrop?
Moreover, his imperative — even in life-threatening situations — is never to harm, but to dismantle the barrier-like position that his enemies occupy; in this way, his compassion is his mutiny. Further still, Terry’s literal career is built upon empowering his community as a jiu jitsu instructor for his fellow Marines; a stark contrast to a system that seeks to heinously control and disempower others for the sake of covering up its shortcomings and maintaining some sense of power and legitimacy. The fact that Pierre — whose clear movie-star chops only become more apparent with every passing role — expertly carries Terry with such intense humanity is a major plus as well.
All this to say that absolutely none of the numbers are lying here, folks; Rebel Ridge is exactly the force of nature that Netflix promised it would be, and you’d be doing yourself quite the favor to contribute to its ongoing viewership success.