What would you do if you came upon millions of dollars, the cop who is counting one such haul is asked. Everything, she says.
Who wouldn’t? The woman, Numa (Teyana Taylor), is part of a narcotics team that has recently lost its chief. The stakes are high and temptation is rife, what with raids on illegally stashed money – called “rips” – causing the spines of honest cops to melt. One such raid severely tests Numa and her teammates. There are far too many bundles of ill-begotten cash lying around and not enough reason to turn them into their bosses.
The Rip, which is out on Netflix, reunites the actors and buddies Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. Joe Carnahan directs a thriller that is stylish, tense and filled with enough twists to justify its slightly overstretched 113-minute runtime.
Dane (Matt Damon) has recently taken over the Tactical Narcotics Unit in Miami after unidentified gunmen kill his colleague Jackie. It isn’t clear whether Jackie was on the verge of a big discovery or died during making a deal with drug dealers.
Charges fly thick and fast about corruption in the ranks and rogue cops collaborating with criminals. Dane and his colleagues – JD (Affleck), Numa, Mike (Steven Yeun) and Lolo (Catalina Sandino Morena) – find their collective honesty tested when they are tipped off about money in a house occupied by a lone woman, Desi (Sasha Calle).
What was thought to be a few hundred thousand dollars runs into millions. Dane’s behaviour changes instantly, making JD suspicious about his motives. Desi advises the team to take the money and run. Somebody on the outside has got wind of the stash, and wants in.
The night is long and filled with surprises. Like the characters in The Usual Suspects, there is reason to suspect everybody, even Desi, who has an unconvincing backstory.
Working with a visual template mastered by Michael Mann, Carnahan and cinematographer Juan Miguel Azpiroz ratchet up the tension alongside creating memorable characters rolling out muscular dialogue. There are tense verbal stand-offs; weapons are discharged; relationships are frayed. Azpiroz’s moody lighting and precise framing are especially vivid in two sequences.
In one, Dane and JD have a soul-searching conversation in a toilet, each of them emerging as mirror images of one other. These buddies will find themselves in danger of becoming adversaries as the night wears on. In another nerve-wracking scene, Dane and JD are in the back seat of an armoured vehicle with two other colleagues, trading allegations and revelations.
The comfort between Damon and Affleck – who have also produced the movie – is evident even in the moments where their characters are at each other’s throats. The rest of the cast turns out equally polished performances, especially Steven Yeun and Sasha Calle.
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