After a crackling start, Jeremy Saulnier’s Rebel Ridge, Netflix’s latest original hit, falters. Its director doesn’t seem sure what kind of movie it should be, or how realistically it should present the consequences of unjust policing. This uncertainty compromises its effectiveness both as an entertainment and as a work of social consciousness.
The movie stars Aaron Pierre as Terry Richmond, a former nonlethal combat trainer for the U.S. Marine Corps. As the film opens, Terry is biking to Shelby Springs, Louisiana, with $36,000 in cash to bail out his cousin from the local jail. When cops detain him on false pretenses, Terry does everything he knows he’s supposed to do as a Black man to avoid police brutality. He’s polite, calm, patient, and respectful. The cops let him go, but they seize his money, supposedly because they believe it’s illicit, but really because they are little more than shakedown artists
...
Keep reading this article on Digital Trends.