The Rip

Sometimes formulaic is good, or at the very least, good enough

I caught the The Rip, a new Netflix thriller from writer-director Joe Carnahan, starring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. Weirdly, it’s probably the best Joe Carnahan film I’ve ever seen (low bar: Smokin’ Aces and The A-Team were real stinkers), but it’s my least favorite Damon-Affleck flick (high bar: Good Will Hunting holds up like a motherfucker and the Kevin Smith collaborations are fun). Who says two A-list stars can’t improve mediocre material?

The film centers around a narcotics squad in the Miami Police Department. I didn’t exactly get a Miami vibe from Damon or Affleck, but given the popular snowbird migration pattern from the Northeast to Florida, I went with it. The story was straight forward. The squad’s former captain was murdered, and internal affairs thinks someone in the squad is the killer. While taking down a stash house, the squad finds more money and more trouble than they were expecting, a rat in their ranks, and — wait for it — their captain’s killer. I won’t spoil The Rip, but if you catch the hard-to-miss clues planted at the end of the first act, you’ll see the twists, complications, and resolution coming in the second and third acts. Some viewers will likely chalk this up to something Damon told Joe Rogan about Netflix movies:

The standard way to make an action movie that we learned was, you usually have three set pieces. One in the first act, one in the second, one in the third. You spend most of your money on that one in the third act. That’s your finale. And now [Netflix is] like, ‘Can we get a big one in the first five minutes? We want people to stay. And it wouldn’t be terrible if you reiterated the plot three or four times in the dialogue because people are on their phones while they’re watching.

I know some people think the sky is falling here, that film is being reduced from a 20th century art form to 21st century content. There’s some truth to that, I suppose. But there are no absolutes here. What’s getting far less attention is Affleck’s take:

But then you look at Adolescence, and it didn’t do any of that shit. And it’s fucking great. And it’s dark too. It’s tragic and intense. [It’s about] this guy who finds out his kid is accused of murder. There are long shots of the back of their heads. They get in the car, nobody says anything.

Affleck’s point is that there’s a formula at Netflix, but there’s also room for stories that aren’t formulaic. We often say that Netflix killed television and that it’s killing movies too. Last I checked, however, Hollywood still makes both, and honestly, there are more television shows and movies than anyone has time to watch. But my point is that disruptors and those who are disrupted tend to overstate the revolution. Yes, things are changing, but also, there isn’t much new here. Studios have always made popcorn flicks that don’t require much thinking, and they’ve also made challenging films that do. Which track do studios prefer? That’s easy — the one that yields the most money / awards / critical praise / popular appeal. The hard part? Even with all the data in the world, nobody really knows which strategy will hit, from one project to the next.

Which brings me back to The Rip. As thrillers go, it’s more fluff than substance. But that’s OK! After a long day at work, I walked the dogs, made a stir-fry for dinner, did the dishes, chatted with my wife, and sat down on the couch for some entertainment. We wanted to watch a thriller, and that’s what we got.

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Book ‘em, Danno

Despite what they say, crime pays. Writing about crime pays, too. Slacker Noir is free, but you need money, honey, if you wanna read my novels.

Not Safe for Work is available at Amazon and all the other book places. Murder and Other Distractions is available here.

Talk to me (or take the 5th)

1. Have you seen The Rip? Thoughts?

2. Best Damon-Affleck film?

3. Worst Damon-Affleck film?

4. Joe Carnahan movies, WTF?