Review: White Boy Rick

At 14 years of age, Richard Wershe Jr., aka White Boy Rick, was the FBI's youngest ever informant. Abandoned several years later, Rick turned to selling drugs for real and was busted at the age of 17 and sentenced to life in prison. Thirty years later, in 2017, Michigan's longest serving nonviolent juvenile offender was finally granted parole. It's not surprising that his arresting story has been turned into a film. What is surprising, shocking even, is that White Boy Rick should be such a shrug of a story with none of the visceral and propulsive qualities that made '71, director Yann Demange's previous effort, such a compelling watch.

Detroit, the early Eighties. Ricky (Ritchie Merritt) and his dad Richard (Matthew McConaughey) are at a gun show where they get weapons at a bargain to upsell to drug dealers and other criminals. Richard isn't exactly keen on spending the rest of his life as an illegal arms dealer; he wants to open a chain of video stores so as to get his family into a straight and legal business. Not that his children seem to share his vision. Daughter Dawn (Bel Powley) practically has an allergic reaction to his attempt at responsible parenting, storming out in a huff and losing herself to drugs and her shady older boyfriend.

Ricky, meanwhile, becomes entranced with the hard-partying lifestyle of an African American gang who welcome him into their inner circle. This, however, allows two FBI agents (Jennifer Jason Leigh and Rory Cochrane) to enlist him to spy on and rat out his friends in exchange for some money and keeping Richard out of jail. This is the point when the film should get going, yet it is exactly when it stalls and stays stalled. The main problem is that one never gets a real sense of why Ricky does anything. It may be the case that the real Ricky had a "Sure, why not?" attitude about working for the FBI, but this does not make for an interesting watch nor does it make for a particularly compelling character.

Demange has certainly put together an appropriately grim and scuzzy package and, whilst there is much to mine here as a family drama and a commentary on systemic injustice, the story told is insubstantial and plodding. Talented actors such as Leigh, Bryan Tyree Henry, Bruce Dern, and Piper Laurie are criminally squandered. McConaughey is remarkably restrained, and Merritt proves a real find as the title character, whose fate is undeniably tragic but was certainly no innocent angel.

White Boy Rick

Directed by: Yann Demange

Written by: Andy Weiss, Logan Miller, Noah Miller

Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Richie Merritt, Bel Powley, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Brian Tyree Henry, Rory Cochrane, Eddie Marsan, Bruce Dern, Piper Laurie, RJ Cyler, Jonathan Majors