Netflix’s new crime thriller Rebel Ridge is two-plus hours of the explosive outcome that occurs when corruption and morality intersect.

Directed by Jeremy Saulnier (Blue Ruin, Green Room), the film is experienced through the eyes of the protagonist, Terry Richmond, portrayed by Aaron Pierre. Terry is an ex-marine who bikes into Shelby Springs hoping to bail his cousin out of jail when his run-in with the police turns into more than just the common small-town racial profiling.

After the crooked cops run off with the money he planned on using to bring his cousin home, Terry tries his luck at filing a report, only to learn the town’s chief of police, Chief Sandy Burnne, played by Don Johnson, is the key to the chaos.

“That’s what attracted me to this part. The morality, the corruption, the violence and the fact that this storytelling is so sophisticated and interesting,” Johnson told Blavity’s Shadow and Act.

He continued, “It’s not so sophisticated that you can’t follow it. It’s sophisticated in that it’s multilayered. And it starts to be one thing, and then it just morphs right in front of your eyes to become something else.”

With a career spanning over five decades, Johnson has played characters on both sides of the badge, including his iconic breakout role as Sonny Crockett in the 1980s hit Miami Vice.

AnnaSophia Robb

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