Director: Joe Carnahan
Writers: Joe Carnahan, Michael McGrale
Stars: Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Steven Yeun
Synopsis: A group of Miami cops discovers a stash of millions in cash, leading to distrust as outsiders learn about the huge seizure, making them question who to rely on.
The Rip takes the action film, a genre that will always be classic Americana and gleefully overloads it with antiheroes, leaving you to question who’s good, who’s bad, and whether that line between hero and villain even exists anymore. Especially in today’s world, where we are begging for heroes, actively seeking them out, and craving genuine conviction, we are, as Aaron Sorkin would say, so thirsty for it that we’ll crawl through the desert toward a mirage and drink the sand.
Yes, the world needs heroes, and Netflix’s The Rip delivers them.
The story follows Matt Damon as Lieutenant Dane Dumars (Matt Damon), who leads a team in Miami’s Narcotics Unit. Their division is being put under the microscope when a rumor makes the rounds of “inside heist teams,” where cops play robbers and steal money from illegal drug stash houses across the city. While talking to the Major (Néstor Carbonell), Dane’s team is interviewed, including his hothead second in command, JD (Ben Affleck).
The team is under professional and personal stress, and after the film’s opening scene, we learn why. A member of their team, Jackie (Lina Esco), is murdered in cold blood on Magic City’s humid, rainy night, and they have no clue why. JD, who has a hush-hush relationship with Jackie, is masking his pain. Numa (A Thousand and One’s Teyana Taylor) and Lola (Maria Full of Grace’s Catalina Sandino Moreno) are having trouble making ends meet. Mike (Minari’s Steven Yeun) is constantly in his lieutenant’s ear about unpaid overtime.
It also doesn’t help that Matty (Kyle Chandler), a local DEA agent, is always flaunting the uncapped pay the Feds allow, while Dane’s team works for free, beyond the normal nine-to-five. That’s the carrot the audience is given, so here comes the stick: Dane gets a tip from Crime Stoppers that there’s a couple of hundred thousand dollars in a downtown stash house. He gathers his troops, and they charm their way into Desi’s (The Flash’s Sasha Calle) home, where they discover over twenty million dollars—and supervision in sight.
The Rip is from Joe Carnahan (The Grey), who rose to prominence with the 2002 Jason Patric and Ray Liotta crime classic Narc. It may have taken some years, but Carnahan has found his way back to what he does best: telling crime stories through interesting lenses and making conventional plot devices feel new again. (Do yourself a favor and book a double feature with this and his 2022 pulpy homage to ’70s crime films, Copshop, an honorable mention on our esteemed Editor-in-Chief David Giannini’s Best Films of 2021 list.)
For one, Carnahan uses tension, tone, and pace as creative weapons. Now, yes, The Rip is much more of a straight genre picture than he has made in a while. However, there is a velocity to the scenes that zip by in a way you can’t quite put your finger on. Watching it back, even moments where the FBI is interrogating Damon’s Dane’s team carry an organic urgency that feels infectious. That’s because his script rarely gives way to exposition that overstays its welcome.
Scenes with Damon and Affleck at each other’s throats feel dangerous, fast, and unstable. While the third act comes together a bit too cleanly, the familiar crime clichés are played with a clever wink and nod to the audience, showing an awareness of plot holes the rest of us would normally question. Yes, seasoned cinephiles will likely spot the main villain a mile away. Yet the tension and tone built through clever plotting will keep most genre fans on the edge of their seats for most of the film.
There are a few details that drag down the picture, like communication with drug cartels, which I found laughable. In addition, when they reveal Jackie’s killer in the third act, they do it in a flashback. The criminal takes off their mask and walks away, as if there were no cameras on every street corner or in the parking lot filled with cars. I mean, have Damon, Affleck, and Carnahan never watched an episode of true crime where CCTV solves more murders than Columbo?
Yes, The Rip is worth watching because it is a smart, popcorn-style streaming film that takes a thoughtful approach to a standard story. (The real-life story it is based on, the real-life Miami River Cops scandal, is bonkers and begging to be made into a feature.) An excellent cast does lift the material, but the story, the devices, and the tension make the picture gripping enough to recommend… and to be thankful for cinematic heroes, since we lack so many at the moment.
You can stream The Rip exclusively on Netflix starting January 16th!
