BEFORE: It feels like there will always be one or two more Nicole Kidman or Matthew McConaughey films to go, even if I clear the list - Kidman's going to pop up again in June in documentary, and for McConaughey there's also "The Dark Tower", which is based on a Stephen King story, so it's floating around my October plans right now, but if it doesn't link up with anything there, I'll have to reconsider its placement. But then there's also "The Lincoln Lawyer" that I never watched, because it hasn't run on cable lately and doesn't seem to be streaming anywhere. But it is on iTunes, so I'll add it to the "someday" list and that way if I need it for linking, I'll know where to find it. But I only have room for one more McConaughey film here, so it's "The Lincoln Lawyer" or "White Boy Rick", I can't do both right now. Hmm, one will cost me another $3.99, the other one's on premium cable, so I'm already paying for it - the choice is clear.
McConaughey carries over from "The Paperboy", and I've unintentionally created a trilogy of films with "boy" in the title.
THE PLOT: The story of teenager Richard Wershe Jr., who became an undercover informant for the FBI during the 1980s and was ultimately arrested for drug-trafficking and sentenced to life in prison.
AFTER: At this point I was willing to bet money that a film this week would feature either an absent mother or a father with poor parenting skills - and look at that, I got both in one film. Ricky Jr.'s mother is long gone, while his father makes money by buying AK-47s at gun shows, adding silencers and re-selling them to drug dealers. Much like Clint Eastwood's character in "The Mule", as long as he's getting paid for his efforts, he doesn't worry very much about the collateral damage from his product. Sure, he had plans to open up a video store, which counted as a great plan in 1984, not so much in, say, 2004. But his plans never amounted to much except for collecting videos - jeez, at this point I've got so many movies that I could open up a video store in 1984.
Ricky Jr. seems to have a better business model dealing drugs - as he was instructed to do by the FBI, initially as a cover to gain the trust of the gangs. The problem was, he was supposed to STOP once they got their information from him and made their busts. Long story short, he didn't. His work for the FBI was intended to keep his father out of jail, but then it seems there was no immunity offered to him, or if there was, it was only during the term of his usefulness to the feds. And by the time that his family had enough money to open that video store, probably Blockbuster had taken over that part of the retail market, so what's a teen to do? (Umm, maybe get a job at Blockbuster?)
I'm not sure I understood certain parts of this film's story, like what happened at the boxing match in Las Vegas, or why Ricky started wearing a Jewish star on a gold chain (he didn't seem to know it was a Jewish symbol?). For that matter, I didn't get who Art Derrick was, or why he was important. Ricky met him in Vegas, and Art seemed to know Ricky's father, but so what? I had to look him up online to learn who he was. For that matter, I learned more details about Ricky Jr. in 5 minutes online than I feel I was given during a 110-minute movie.
After serving 30 years of a life sentence in Michigan, the real Richard Wershe Jr. was paroled, and there's audio of him at the end of the film, talking about how great it felt to get parole. But the film doesn't mention anything about how he was transferred to Florida to start doing time on a separate charge, involvement in a car theft ring. But hey, after you've done 30 years in prison in Michigan, three more years in Florida probably feels like a vacation, right? I mean, the weather's better, maybe the view from between the bars is a little nicer, the only drawback is when you get released, you're in Florida. Thank god there's no trouble he can get into there, involving drugs or guns...
I almost feel the grandparents were the best characters here, and they just didn't get enough screen time...
Also starring Richie Merritt, Bel Powley, Jennifer Jason Leigh (last seen in "The Spectacular Now"), Brian Tyree Henry (last heard in "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse"), Rory Cochrane (last seen in "The Most Hated Woman in America", RJ Cyler (last seen in "War Machine"), Jonathan Majors (last seen in "Hostiles"), Eddie Marsan (last seen in "Vice"), Bruce Dern (last seen in "Chappaquiddick"), Piper Laurie (last seen in "Hesher"), Raekwon Haynes, YG, Taylour Paige, Danny Brown, Ishmael Ali, Kyanna Simone Simpson
RATING: 4 out of 10 roller skates
No comments:
Post a Comment