It has been nearly thirty years since childhood friends Matt Damon and Ben Affleck collaborated to write the screenplay for “Good Will Hunting”. The film would go on to be a box office smash, grossing over $225 million. Even more, the two buddies from Cambridge, Massachusetts would win an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Soon after, both Damon and Affleck were catapulted into full leading man status. Yet despite their individual successes, their friendship remains strong to this day.

Damon and Affleck share the screen together again in Netflix’s “The Rip”, a pulse-pounding action thriller written and directed by Joe Carnahan. While they sit firmly as the film’s leads, Carnahan surrounds them with a compelling supporting cast that includes Steven Yeun, recent Golden Globe winner Teyana Taylor, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Sasha Calle, Néstor Carbonell, and the always great Kyle Chandler.

“The Rip” tells a gritty, street-level crime story set in Miami. It begins with the violent murder of Captain Jackie Velez (Lina Esco), the leader of the police department’s Tactical Narcotics Team. With the tight-knit squad still reeling from Jackie’s death, the FBI begin an Internal Affairs investigation to see if the murder was pulled off by someone within the department. Meanwhile Lieutenant Dane Dumars (Damon) is promoted to team leader. But his job won’t be easy with the division falling apart and morale at rock-bottom.

After receiving a Crime Stoppers tip identifying a stash house belonging to the Hialeah cartel, Dane rounds up his frustrated and disillusioned team of detectives. They consist of his his best friend and a long-time cop, Detective Sergeant J.D. Byrne (Affleck), Detective Mike Ro (Yeun), Detective Numa Baptiste (Taylor), and Detective Lolo Salazar (Moreno). The team arrives at the house which sits at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac. With his tone set and pieces in place, Carnahan then begins tightening the screws.

The team is met at the door by a young woman named Desi (Calle) who claims the house belongs to her grandmother. But inside tells a much different story. While searching the rooms they discover fifteen buckets filled with cartel cash hidden in the walls of an attic. The team expected the “rip” to be from $150k to $300k. But they quickly realize they’re sitting on an estimated $20 million. Procedure states they count the money at the site of the seizure. But that much money comes with an extra layer of danger, which they soon learn after a mysterious phone call gives them 30 minutes to leave or else.

Carnahan drops his team in a pressure cooker as the detectives scramble to figure out the best course of action. Or are there other motivations in play? As the external threat mounts, it’s the internal fractures that drive the suspense. The real tension kicks in once the team members begin losing trust in each other. And as trust erodes, loyalties shift and paranoia sets in. Who’s dirty? Who’s clean? Carnahan masterfully keeps us guessing as he digs deep into corruption and betrayal.

The film’s mystery is a key reason it works so well. Carnahan plants seeds of suspicion everywhere without ever tipping his hand. And whenever we think we have things figured out, he proves to be one step ahead of us. At the same time, he and DP Juan Miguel Azpiroz use their camera to give the world a gritty and visceral texture. The striking visuals not only keep us on the edges of our seats, they also energize the action sequences, grounding them in realism and putting us in the middle of the violence. It’s exhilarating.

“The Rip” is Joe Carnahan’s best film since “The Grey” and it’s a killer start of the year for Netflix. Inspired by true events, the story and storytelling grips you from the opening scene to the closing credits. The conscious barrage of f-bombs dumbs things down a bit. But otherwise the script is razor-sharp, giving the intensely focused cast some rich material to work with. Of course it helps to have actors working at such strong comfort levels as Damon snd Affleck. They really do have a natural chemistry that comes through on screen. And that’s one of many reasons this enthralling action thriller hits with such force.