“Rebel Ridge” starts with a shot of a lean, muscular stranger riding into a small, corrupt Southern town — a scene we've all encountered many times. However, this stranger isn't in a car or on a horse. He's on a bicycle.

This is one of many ways that writer-director Jeremy Saulnier both respects and playfully subverts film conventions on his journey to create what is undoubtedly one of the best things on Netflix.

The intense, gripping, and suspenseful “Rebel Ridge” follows the story of a former Marine who arrives in Shelby Springs, Louisiana, to post his cousin's bail and becomes entangled in a confrontation with the town's corrupt law enforcement.

The last time a relative came to help his cousin escape a corrupt Southern legal system, it was a comedy starring Joe Pesci and a hero named Vinny. If you need any indication that this movie is not that, the opening sequence is set to Iron Maiden.

The film stars Aaron Pierre as Terry Richmond, a former Marine with impressive martial arts and survival skills (he even catches fish with his bare hands). On the opposing side is Don Johnson as the cunning and deadly Chief of Police, a man as ruthless as Richmond is honorable. Both actors seem to relish their gun-wielding, testosterone-fueled roles.

Saulnier, known for his previous films “Blue Ruin” and “Green Room”, which explored frontier justice and lawlessness, imbues this action thriller with a strong social context: racism, opioid addiction, the cash bail system, small-town funding challenges, and the militarization of police forces.

Like its protagonist, “Rebel Ridge” is a lean, muscular film with minimal reliance on over-the-top special effects, except for Pierre’s striking eyes. It’s a testament to the power of small-budget, naturalistic filmmaking, where cars on gravel roads churn up dust clouds and bone-crunching sounds accompany violent encounters.

The screenplay is succinct, leaving room for poetic lines like “You know the thing about a pissing contest? Everybody gets piss on their boots”, and avoiding unnecessary fluff. This economy of storytelling means that if an item like a bottle of coconut water appears in one scene, it will likely play a role in another. The camera work is inventive, using shots like the backseat of a speeding car or a tense cell phone call in an old-fashioned phone booth.

Brooke and Will Blair's score effectively underscores the drama, creating a sense of unease with dissonant sounds that ebb and flow like crashing waves. The soundtrack, which features songs like “Wayfaring Stranger” by Neko Case and “Right Brigade” by Bad Brains, is often heard through car radios, headphones, or restaurant speakers. Distant thunder rumbles periodically, adding to the atmosphere.

Our ex-Marine — described by one officer as “unarmed but considered dangerous” — forms an unexpected partnership with a court clerk, played effectively by AnnaSophia Robb, and James Cromwell has a notable role as well.

“Rebel Ridge” evokes elements of various other films, ranging from “First Blood” to spaghetti Westerns, and the script even humanizes the antagonists — “Just because you were right doesn’t mean we were wrong,” the chief tells our protagonist.

There's a secret plot at the heart of the town, and you won't be able to stop watching to find out if one skilled outsider can save the day, as events dramatically unfold. “This is getting out of control. A real mess,” says our hero. That's not what you'll see on screen though - it's the complete opposite of a disaster.

“Rebel Ridge,” a Netflix film premiering on Friday, is rated TV-MA for “language, smoking and violence.” It has a runtime of 131 minutes. Receiving a rating of three and a half out of four stars.