Netflix’s ‘Rebel Ridge’ Was the Best Action Movie I Saw This Year

Where should movies be? Clearly the right answer is theaters, where they can produce communal cultural experiences and get their visual and aural due. But I would like to say that Rebel Ridge, which has the soul of a B-movie but the talent, vigor, and style of something far finer, should be exactly where it is—on any screen at hand, where at a moment’s notice, you can decide to acquaint yourself with the depthless talents of its leading man, Aaron Pierre.

Who? I myself had seen this actor only fleetingly, in one or two small things, but now I’m deeply committed to his burgeoning career as an A-list action hero. Pierre plays Terry Richmond, who first appears on a (quite nice) gravel bike, pedaling down a Louisiana country road. A squad car sideswipes him to the pavement and a shakedown commences. The officers seize the cash he’s carrying in his backpack (a lot, for his cousin’s bail) and off they go.

You can always see where Rebel Ridge is headed, but what is so mesmerizing is the way Pierre takes you there, gathering his rage into a soft-spoken dignity and air of self-control that conjures the action greats: Steve McQueen, Denzel Washington, Clint Eastwood. Terry heads to the courthouse to report the cops and get his money back, and a plot unfolds that wraps up local politics, issues of civil forfeiture and corruption. That’s all fine. What you need to know is he is an ex-Marine, a martial arts expert, with a deep sense of right and wrong but a willingness to escalate when he needs to.

You should also know that Don Johnson is in this movie, as the crooked local sheriff, and Johnson has, as far as I’m concerned, entered his imperial phase. What a movie star! At 75, he looks incredible, like he’ll live forever. Watching him and Pierre calmly trade threats inches from each others’ faces before a masterfully staged action sequence breaks out is unadulterated cinematic joy. Even on your phone.