Reviews
The Rip
When Ben Affleck and Matt Damon pushed for the crew of The Rip to receive performance based financial rewards for the movie, a first for a Netflix release, my interest was immediately piqued. Surely pushing for rewards of that scale meant that at the very least Affleck and Damon had real confidence in what they had made, which for a Netflix movie quietly dropped in January is not something I personally expected to be true. Given the track record of January releases of this nature, with last year’s Back in Action being a prime example, my expectations were low. I will happily admit that I was wrong though, and the Damon and Affleck dream team have yet again delivered.
Alongside the acting duo, Netflix bringing in writer and director Joe Carnahan is another inspired decision. While some of his more recent work has not exactly set the world alight, his earlier films, particularly the cop thriller Narc, feel far closer in tone to what we get here. Carnahan has always had a strong grasp on stories about morally compromised police officers, and that strength is on full display in The Rip. It is easily the best film he has made in years and will almost certainly be very well received on the platform. The biggest drawback is that it absolutely should have been playing on the big screen.
The Rip is an intense and kinetic tale of an elite Miami narcotics team who, following the brutal and mysterious murder of their Captain, are tipped off about a stash of drug money. What they believe to be a moderately sized haul turns out to be far more than any of them could have imagined, with the total sitting closer to $20 million rather than the $150k they were originally quoted. This shocking discovery may be linked to their Captain’s death, while a growing mistrust within the unit suggests that one of them could be trying to rip the money off for themselves.
It is within the team that the insanely star powered cast really shines, a line up so strong that The Rip would have almost certainly played well at the box office as the first major blockbuster of the year. Leading the group is Lt. Dane Dumars (Matt Damon), a man weighed down by the death of his son, mounting medical bills, and a deep exhaustion with the job, all of which make for a convincing motive. Detective Sgt. JD Byrne (Ben Affleck), Dumars’ right hand man, is laser focused on getting results while also providing some much needed comic relief. Oscar favourite Teyana Taylor, alongside Catalina Sandino Morena and Steven Yeun, have smaller roles within the team, but that does not mean they fade into the background or feel uninvolved. Still, it is DEA agent Matty Nix (Kyle Chandler) who instantly stands out with his swagger, along with Del Byrne (Scott Adkins), an FBI agent and JD Byrne’s younger brother, who both leave a strong impression.
From the very start, The Rip proves to be a gripping psychological thriller with high stakes and anxiety inducing twists that avoid many of the genre’s familiar beats. With a story centred on underpaid and underappreciated cops, unfairly compensated for the dangerous work they do, the assumption is that at least one of them will be dirty, and the film leans into that expectation. Tension builds as secrets are kept, loyalties shift, and actions are taken that cannot simply be buried. As if that were not enough, the caretaker of the stash house, Desi (Sasha Calle), adds an unexpected wrinkle. Her presence, and the uncertainty surrounding her motives and capabilities, introduces an entirely new layer of complication for the team to contend with.
What makes The Rip even more impressive is that it is not just a high anxiety psychological thriller. Even if it were, the execution would have been more than enough, but Carnahan also delivers a genuinely strong action film. There are high octane car chases, brutally choreographed hand to hand fights that occasionally echo John Wick, and gunfights that finally feel grounded and consequential. Once again, these sequences only reinforced how much I wished I was watching it on the biggest screen possible rather than on a television at home, which did feel like a missed opportunity.
For a film like The Rip to work as well as it does, the performances need to rise to the level of the script. In Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, it would have been easy for either of them to coast, as we have seen from many big names in straight to streaming projects. Instead, they both bring their full commitment, and it is a pleasure to watch. Their chemistry is effortless, and the way they portray men worn down by life while still carrying enormous responsibility is handled with real care. If this is the standard, I would happily watch several more films with the pair at the helm.
The Rip also does an excellent job of carefully distributing information throughout its runtime, ensuring that it never becomes easy to predict who is not quite what they seem. Even by the time everything comes together in the climax, the tension remains thick and uncomfortable. One particular sequence that pits the so-called good guys against the bad delivers what is arguably one of the standout moments of Joe Carnahan’s career to date. If you are struggling to decide what to watch this weekend, you would be hard pressed to find a better time at home than the one you will have with The Rip.