No Justice for White Boy Rick - Quick One

White Boy Rick is the true crime drama based on, get this, a true story. It follows a young man growing up in a dirt-poor Detroit neighborhood in the mid 80's. His sister is a junkie drug addict, two bad decisions away from being caught in a human trafficking ring, and his father is a hopeless gun runner, exploiting loopholes to make sales at gun shows (topical much?).

Right away, the film literally screams in our faces about how dysfunctional the Wershe family really is, ending with grandma and grandpa having a yelling match with the single dad struggling to control his irate daughter.

The "White Boy" Rick in question is played by Richie Merritt, making his on-screen debut. His dad, "White Boy" Rick, Sr., is of course, Wooderson from Dazed and Confused, and Bel Powley kills it as junkie sister, Dawn. While I'm on it, I have to say, the cast is incredible. Well, on paper anyway, and no one is bad in this film, but outside of the Ricks, Jr. and Sr., and to a lesser extent, the sister, no one else really has much to do. Then again, even if they did have more to do, when would they find the time to do it?

The movie touches on many interesting dynamics, throughout, before quickly jumping to the next event, or sometimes, non-event. Something will happen and you think, narratively, this should be important later -- but then it never is. As for pacing, it's pretty rocky. That doesn't always have to be a bad thing, I loved Black Mass, another true crime story, but the events you choose to depict have to be relevant to one another in order to make sense on a narrative level, and to that extent, the film falls short.

With a soundtrack that sounds more 70's than 80's, but a Detroit that looks as dirty and menacing as it should, the environment for the story is consistent enough, and generally framed very well. While the highs and lows don't make for great peaks or valleys, the third act has plenty to say about the justice system -- the true villain of the piece.

Matthew McConaughey and Bel Powley give lights-out performances. Bruce Dern and Jenifer Jason Leigh couldn't be bad if they wanted to, and Jonathan Majors and Paperboi, from Atlanta, do the best they can with what little they get. Even with all that, there is this kid who comes around to tell Rick he's a "baby daddy" now, and that he needs to go do the right thing (somewhere in the middle). That kid is the real MVP.

So while good, White Boy Rick is not great. The whole is not equal to the sum of its parts, but it was a good ride, and an interesting crime story with a heartbreaking end. I give this film 2 token black characters out of 5.

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