The Houston Ballet's "Forgotten Land" with Christopher Coomer and JessicaCollado and choreographed by Jiri Kylian
Photo by Amitava Sarkar
Sarah Rothenberg’s "The Blue Rider: Kandinsky and Music," presented by Da Camera
From "Kurt Schwitters: Color and Collage" at The Menil Collection
Photo by Hickey-Robertson, Houston
Editors Note: We've asked Houston arts leaders and CultureMap contributors to pick the jewels from Houston's upcoming arts season — the events that they don't plan to miss. Houston Symphony music director Hans Graf finds these picks exciting and intriguing:
1. Houston Ballet’s performance of Jiří Kylián’s Forgotten Land which uses Benjamin Britten's Sinfonia da Requiem (Sept. 9-19). (Hans Graf will conduct that work in concert with Houston Symphony in Feb. 2011.)
2. Kurt Schwitters: Color and Collage at the Menil Collection (Oct. 22 - Jan. 30, 2011).
3. Sarah Rothenberg’s The Blue Rider: Kandinsky and Music presented by Da Camera of Houston (Jan. 29, 2011).
4.The Alley Theatre production of Amadeusby Peter Shaffer, directed by Jonathan Moscone (April 6-May 1, 2011).
5. Exploring Mahler 10, Hans Graf and the Houston Symphony with radio host Fred Child (May 13-15 2011).
There have been a number of films in the past decade or so that have confronted police brutality and/or corruption, detailing both fictional and real-life events. The seriousness of the topic has mostly kept stories confined strictly to the drama category, but the new film Rebel Ridgedares to take things into the action/thriller genre while still remaining thoughtful about the larger subject at hand.
As the film begins, Terry Richmond (Aaron Pierre) is traveling by bicycle down a country road when he is followed and then crashed into by a police cruiser. Over his objections, the two officers conduct a search of his backpack, where they find a large amount of cash that Terry was going to use to bail his cousin out of jail. Without due cause, the cops confiscate the money and leave Terry to fend for himself.
While clearly upset about his mistreatment and the injustice heaped upon him, Terry continues to try work within the system to get his cousin released, only to be stymied at every turn. Left with no other option, Terry decides to confront the small-town police department, led by Chief Sandy Burnne (Don Johnson). His background in the Marines, especially a certain set of skills he learned there, make him a formidable threat, even in the face of a group of highly-armed men.
Written and directed by Jeremy Saulnier (Green Room), the film is striking in how calm Terry remains, even when he decides to resort to violent means. In his multiple interactions with the police in the first half of the film, he remains in control of his emotions at all times, refusing to give the cops any extra reason to take their anger out on him. This behavior rings true to life, a subtle but strong commentary on the expectations put on Black people in such situations.
With a low-but-pulsating score and a carefully-crafted building of tension, Saulnier gives the audience permission to want to see Terry enact his revenge on the cops. And yet, the film is far from exploitative. At the same time as he’s growing angrier by the minute with the police, he’s working with Summer McBride (AnnaSophia Robb), a court employee, to free his cousin legally. The combination of the two storylines works well, especially when the story takes a turn in the final act.
Saulnier is careful to keep the action in the film relatively realistic. While there are some moments when Terry shows extraordinary abilities, they make sense given the character’s training and never turn him into an unstoppable superhero. Even more pointed is how Terry eschews the use of guns. There are multiple times when picking up a gun is an option, and yet he picks something else every time, a moral code not often seen in films such as these.
Pierre proves to be the perfect actor for this particular role. While he’s big enough to be intimidating and has eyes that seem to pierce the soul, it’s the level-headed demeanor that he brings to the role that makes it a great performance. Johnson has just the right amount of charisma and malevolence for his part, and Robb shows a maturity that may signal the start of the next phase of her career.
Rebel Ridge plays with ideas formed from real life and similar movies to become a stirring film that hits almost all the right notes. It doesn’t necessarily have any answers for the systemic problems it includes in its story, but the righteous anger it provokes make it highly memorable.