The trailers for White Boy Rick deceived me. I expected a frenetic, over-the-top throwback full of 80s excess, rollerskating, and outlandish behaviour as fifteen year old Ricky (Richie Merritt) breaks into the Detroit crime scene in 1984, assisted by his gunrunning dad (played by the madcap Matthew McConaughey). I expected a dark comedy. I hoped for Scarface, the teenage years, with lots of action and quotable dialogue. I would have settled for half-assed ripoff of Boogie Nights, with a naive rising star breaking into a criminal enterprise.
But instead, I got a melancholy family drama about a group of deadbeats with whom I had no interest in spending any time at all. Not as friends, not as neighbours, and certainly not as the subjects of a two hour feature. Ricky’s story is not a story that deserves to be told on screen, and that’s fatal. I never could bring myself to care about him or his family, not even a little bit. That is in no way the fault of Merritt or McConaughey. It is also not an issue arising from the screenplay or the direction. It’s more basic than that: there was no saving these characters. They were simply irredeemable.
It’s unfortunate because there is a story underlying White Boy Rick that does deserve our attention: the fact that the 80s “War on Drugs” was primarily a scheme to keep America’s prisons stocked with young black men. And, as a bonus in many states, strip them of their right to vote once convicted of a felony, which many might even plead to if they were locked up and mistreated for long enough prior to trial.
That is a story that has been much better told by Ava DuVernay’s 13th (which is definitely worth your time). That is also a story that should probably not be told from a white family’s perspective, as doing so suggests that mandatorylife sentences without the possibility of parole for crack dealers are only a problem when white people start getting locked away too.
Yet, here we are. Ricky’s life is onscreen for you to shake your head at, if you so choose. But you have much better options available to you in the coming weeks (such as The Predator and Life Itself, to name two I saw this past weekend at TIFF). Then again, if you are about bad choices, like choosing White Boy Rick over either of those, then maybe you will find the movie more enjoyable due to having something in common with little Ricky and his family, who never met a bad choice they didn’t like. Yes, I just went there, but it’s for your own good.
Hmmm, that is too bad. I usually really like Matthew, but it seems not even he is able to save this film😢
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I lile him too but he’s a bit player here, and his character has the same problem as Rick Jr., namely that he’s a bad guy and worse for the film, he’s not even good at being bad.
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I heard how bad the reviews for this film as the trailer made it look like it would be cool but man, it was none of those things. I wanted to see it because of the cast but now… not anymore. BTW, have you seen The Public by Emilio Estevez and how bad is it?
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Haven’t seen the Public yet but I think it’s on Jay’s list! Just don’t ask me when her screening is, I’ve completely lost track at this point.
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OK that’s on the miss list, looking forward to predator.
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Great reviews! Now I’m prepared with quality information that shifts through the Hollywood PR machine.
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This trailer played before the movie I saw today and it did nothing for me. I’ll be skipping.
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I saw the same ads as you. Thanks for the warning.
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Reading about the real White Boy Rick has been pretty interesting. Sounds like I can just skip the movie and hope for something on the Investigation Discovery Channel.
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Im sorry, bur I would so rather watch this than that cheesy looking shit Life Itself. Talk about rot-your-teeth on sugary sentimentalism.
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I’ll take your advice and watch Ava DuVernay’s 13th instead
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Thought it was fine. Could have went deeper on the War on Drugs and the racial aspects, but as a father-sun-daughter story I was into it enough, and the acting was strong.
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