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A14 PEOPLE / ARTS
Friday 6 September 2024
Movie Review: Netflix’s tight, taut and tension-filled ‘Rebel Ridge’ is

a first-rate drama

By MARK KENNEDY a bottle of coconut water
AP Entertainment Writer is brought up in one scene,
“Rebel Ridge” opens with it’s going be used in an-
a shot of a lanky, muscular other. There are interesting
stranger riding into a small, camera angles, like the
corrupt Southern town a backseat of a speeding
scene we’ve all seen plenty car or a tense cell phone
of times. Except this strang- call inside an old-fashioned
er isn’t in a truck or on a phone booth.
horse. He’s on a bicycle. There’s also great use of
It’s one of many ways that dramatic underscoring by
writer-director Jeremy Saul- Brooke and Will Blair, who
nier both honors and has build discordant waves
fun with movie conventions that grow slack, only to
on his way to making clear- reappear like a shark. The
ly one of the best things on score including “Wayfar-
Netflix. ing Stranger” by Neko Case
The tight, taut and ten- or “Right Brigade” by Bad
sion-filled “Rebel Ridge” is Brains are heard only on
the story of a former Ma- car radios or headphones
rine who arrives in Shelby or playing in restaurants.
Springs, Louisiana, to post Distant thunder sounds of-
his cousin’s bond and gets ten.
sucked into taking on its Our ex-Marine described
shady law enforcement This image released by Netflix shows Don Johnson as Chief Sandy Burnne, left, and Aaron Pierre by one officer as “unarmed
department. as Terry Richmond in a scene from “Rebel Ridge.” but considered danger-
The last time a relative Associated Press ous” forges an unlikely ally

came to help his cousin with mad martial arts and Ruin” and “Green Room” budget, naturalistic film- in a court clerk, played
from the clutches of less- survival skills (he catches has given this action-thrill- making, where cars on a winningly by AnnaSophia
than-ideal small town fish with his bare hands), er loads of social context: gravel road kick up chok- Robb, and there’s a plumb
Southern legal system it and, on the opposite side, racism, opioid addiction, ing clouds of dust and arm role for James Cromwell,
was a comedy with Joe Don Johnson as the courtly the cash bail system, small- bones crack when pressure too. “Rebel Ridge” has
Pesci and a hero named but deadly chief of police, town funding and milita- is applied. whiffs of all kinds of other
Vinny. If you ever needed a as venal as Richmond is no- rized cops. The script is spare allow- movies, from “First Blood”
hint that this isn’t that mov- ble. Both seem absolutely Like its leading man, “Rebel ing for some homespun to spaghetti Westerns,
ie, the opening sequence is to adore their gun-slinging, Ridge” is a lean, muscular poetry like “You know the while the script even hu-
scored to Iron Maiden. testosterone-filled roles. movie with few over-the- thing about a pissing con- manizes the bad guys “Just
The movie stars Aaron Saulnier who dealt with top special effects, save test? Everybody gets piss because you was right
Pierre as our former Marine, frontier justice and lawless- for Pierre’s spectacular on their boots” and with- doesn’t make us wrong,”
Terry Richmond, a man ness in his previous “Blue eyes. It’s a triumph of small- out an ounce of fat. So if the chief says to our hero.q

Fictional sleuth Sam Spade will be back on the job in upcoming

novel by Max Allan Collins

By HILLEL ITALIE Sam Spade, will be contin- day that Collins’ “The Re- challenging Hammett’s Tom Hanks and Paul New-
AP National Writer ued by prize-winning crime turn of the Maltese Falcon” best mystery also happens man, has a long history of
NEW YORK (AP) — The story writer Max Allan Collins. will be released in January to be one of the greatest working with famous literary
of one of the great fictional The publisher Hard Case 2026, when the Hammett American novels, period.” detectives. He took over
sleuths, Dashiell Hammett ‘s Crime announced Thurs- classic featuring Spade, When copyright protection the Dick Tracy comic strip in
“The Maltese Falcon,” en- ends for a book, anyone is the late 1970s after creator
ters the public domain. free to use the characters Chester Gould retired, and
“The Maltese Falcon,” pub- and story line. After F. Scott he was later authorized to
lished in 1930 and known to Fitzgerald’s “The Great continue Mickey Spillane’s
movie fans for the 1941 ad- Gatsby” entered the public Mike Hammer series.
aptation starring Humphrey domain, in 2021, new cre- “I’m something of an old
Bogart, is widely regarded ations included a Tony-win- hand at walking in the
as a model for the hard- ning musical of the same shoes of the giants who
boiled detective novel. name and a prequel novel, came before, though I
“It has been an inspiration “Nick,” by Michael Farris never claim to filling them,”
to authors and filmmakers, Smith. Collins told The Associated
actors and illustrators and According to Hard Case Press.
musicians — and to me, for Crime, Collins’ new book Various authorized Spade
the entire 50-plus years I’ve will bring back Spade and projects have been re-
been a novelist,” Collins Joel Cairo among other leased, including a 2009
said in a statement. “Not Hammett characters, and prequel, Joe Gores’
that writing about the world “a mysterious new femme “Spade & Archer,” a novel
Novelist Dashiell Hammett, author of “The Maltese Falcon” Hammett created, and fatale.” Collins, whose about Spade and his pro-
appears in New York on Nov. 7, 1947.
Associated Press those immortal, sometimes “Road to Perdition” was fessional partner, Miles Ar-
immoral characters isn’t adapted into a film starring cher. q