I’ve been thinking of Green Room.

I’ve been thinking of Green Room a lot recently, the 2015 film starring Anton Yelchin and Patrick Stewart. Why? Because people on my Twitter timeline keep talking about it for some reason. So it’s only fitting that Rebel Ridge came on my suggested movies list on Netflix, which probably happened because it is the #1 movie in the United States this week and literally just came out a couple of days ago. Probably more likely than my algorithm.

While I haven’t watched Green Room yet, and I want to, the connection between the two movies comes down to one Jeremy Saulnier who happens to have directed both films. There’s a lot of connections to films I’ve been meaning to see over the last few months. Also written by Jeremy Saulnier, Rebel Ridge stars Aaron Pierce as Terry Richmond, a former marine who rolls into Shelby Ridge to bail out his cousin only to get assaulted and robbed by two police officers of his bail money under the guise of “civil forfeiture.” You may recognize Aaron Pierce from the M. Night Shyamalan film Old, the film about the beach that makes you old.

The big bad guy of the movie is Chief Sandy Burnne played by who else? Don Johnson. I get the feeling Don Johnson is probably a really nice guy in real life, because those are the types who seem to play the best assholes in films and Johnson plays some really mean assholes. The mistake that Burnne makes is screwing with a former Marine, and then not letting things go when Terry proposes everyone go their own way. It’s a common theme in films where the bad guy just can’t help but escalating things, ensuring his ultimate downfall when he could have just stopped and moved on.

And before I get further into the review no this is not John Wick. As much as we’d like to see a revenge spree where Terry guns down a bunch of corrupt cops, his character plays pretty much everything above board. There are a lot of tense scenes and violent moments but this isn’t a revenge thriller as much as it is a rather intelligently paced film about getting even. Which I realize now sounds about the same. There is also a shootout, but it’s not going to play out how you’re imagining it right now.

Terry finds support in the form of Summer played by, holy crap, AnnaSophia Robb. I honestly did not recognize her, granted it’s been fifteen years since I’ve seen a movie that AnnaSophia Robb was in. I do love Summer’s character, we learn more about her story as the film progresses and get an insight into why she is the way she is and why she wants to help out Terry at the risk of her life and career. David Denman (dad from Brightburn) is here as officer Marston, as is Zsané Jhé as Officer Sims, two people who start to realize how screwed up the Chief is and how corruption in the force might not be worth defending.

Everyone plays their role fantastically, especially the leads Pierce and Johnson. While he has every right to be angry and go on a rampage, you can tell from the start to the end that Terry is constantly using his training to try to de-escalate the situation. Burnne on the other hand can’t help but make things worse for everyone in an attempt to wave his dick around and show how powerful he is. But is it really power? We get the notion more and more as the film goes on that Burnne’s actions may be less about power and more about vulnerability.

Burnne is a great character. We learn more about the chief himself and his motivations as the film goes on, but it’s all in the service of fleshing him out into a real person. At no point is he a mustache-twirling villain caricature but also the movie doesn’t go out of its way to try to paint him as a tragic character or try to make you sympathize with him. He got to where he is out of his own choices in life, and he’s going to have to deal with them same as anyone else.

Rebel Ridge is a fantastic movie and I think worth the hour and forty six minute runtime. Check it out on Netflix.

Rating: A-