Skip to main content

White Boy Rick (2018), R, ★★


Every now and then, in my mind, since Martin Scorsese's excellent biographical gangster film, Goodfellas, directors have been chasing that Holy Grail of incorporating that narrative melded with their own creativity equalling a great crime product. Some succeeds more than others. I have heard of this story before from reading articles surrounding White Boy Rick and his schemes so I was excited for this movie. As a result, I can see the grandiose ideas of conveying the mood into its atmosphere and story, but the movie is limited in conveying that same mood into the characters while being perplexed by the overall, fuzzy picture after nitpicking how sensational some scenes and details are in the end.

The movie starts at an Ohio gun show in 1986 where Rick Wershe Jr. (Rick Merritt) is examining some AK-47s with the dealer. He notices some strange with the guns and afterwards, he calls his father, Rick Sr. (Matthew McConaughey) to back him up and they both blackmail the dealer for a discount in exchange for not ratting him out and losing his license. Rick Sr. is a small-time arms dealer dreaming of opening a video store as his son is basically shadowing him. Sr.'s daughter, Dawn (Bel Powley) is a junkie who also gets into trouble as she is being caught making out with her boyfriend, Ty.

Later that night, Rick is learning about "up-selling" from Rick Sr. and he uses his knowledge to sell the AK-47's to some local gang members that he's familiar with and he makes a huge profit. Rick starts hanging out with the gang members in the skating rink. FBI agents Alexandra (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and Frank (Rory Cochrane) tell Rick Sr. that they know about the illegally-made and sold silencers and will catch him sooner or later.


The movie has some compelling scenes that is worth of interest by focusing on the character's actions and could potentially be a fun crime ride. But, the movie plays it safe by predicting almost every creative move and not have a fresh perspective. It seems that there is some narrative drive but then it gets interfered by some creative force that hinders the enjoyment for me, like an unnecessary time jump. The movie does not earn those time jumps if we do not know what is going on. The movie does not as flow as naturally as you can pinpoint how much time has passed. Plus, there is not as much connection in the political context as to the story it attempts to focus on the straight-forward rags-to-riches story that we have seen in countless crime pictures.

Richie Merritt, in his acting debut, did a good job preparing for the role, however, it seemed that he portrayed the character with the least amount of interest or menace. It seemed like he was playing dress-up as White Boy Rick rather than making me believe that he is playing White Boy Rick and it loses me as he interacts with some characters. Matthew McConaughey gives one of his best performances as a father trying to achieve a legal dream by committing illegal actions to get to a brighter future. In reality right now, a video store would be a terrible dream. But, his chemistry between he and Merritt are one of the few good highlights of the movie. Bel Powley is quite fantastic as the sister. And, I wish we had more time with Jennifer Jason Leigh, Bruce Dern, Rory Cochrane and Brian Tyree Henry as they are just there to support them to get name recognition.

Director Yann Demange, who had made the very good movie, '71, gets unfocused by losing himself in the atmosphere and does not gain traction back onto the political context of the story or the characters. He seems to mess around with the timelines as to pinpoints which events are important in his life and does not back up his action with the War on Drugs. It would have been quite interesting if this subject were a documentary. But, as a movie, it feels bloated with material and information, that it does not have time for characters and story to breathe in its seemingly fun atmosphere in a rundown city of Detroit. Demange retreats into a paint-by-numbers crime story that is quite unsatisfying and disappointing.

**


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2015 Documentaries

I have only seen 6 documentaries this year which also includes Amy and I Am Chris Farley . But, I have to be honest, this has not been a particularly strong year for documentaries except for onethat got me emotionally and mentally as what I examine for when they uncover the truth or some facts from the people involved in these documentaries. But, here are the four I have seen this year: Listen To Me Marlon, Unrated, 4 stars This is the most insightful documentary of the year as we only hear Marlon Brando narrating his life and experiences what he has gone through regarding his family, his private life and his film experiences regarding The Godfather , Apocalypse Now , Last Tango in Paris , etc. It is like Marlon Brando came out of his grave to give us another profoundly moving movie only we hear his voice and scenery and nothing else. The Look of Silence, R, 3.5 stars Joshua Oppenheimer's follow-up documentary is a light-hearted but still-disturbing film regarding a ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Daddy's Home 2 (2017), PG-13, ★1/2

The first Daddy's Home was surprisingly a financial success as I thought it was not as bad as many people thought. I thought it was a solid cable watch because it had enough laughs for that sort of mixed recommendation. I was not craving for a sequel for this movie because again, comedy sequels have a very bad record, however, the only difference is that it is not too late since the first movie came out a few years ago. But, this sequel is a reminder as to why we do not need a sequel to a hit comedy because this is a pretty much forgettable comedy, especially a holiday comedy...which I hade a guilty pleasure for. This did not work for me. Brad and Dusty (Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg) have become friends after the events of the first film and they set up a co-dad system where their two children, Megan and Dylan, spending time at each father's home. Dusty has re-married to writer Karen (Victoria's Secret model Alessandra Ambrosio) and he is step-dad to Adrianna, Karen...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), R, 4 stars

The stockbrokers worshipping Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) like a god. Wall Street. The clients, the adrenaline, the stocks, the money, the power, and the decadence. The former three pertains to the man's job, but the latter three pertains what any stockbroker wants in order to have the freedom to do whatever they want with the client's money. As Mark Hanna (Matthew McConaughey) would say, "The name of the game is: move the money from your client's pocket into your pocket." We basically spend three hours seeing all of these Wall-Street scumbags steal the clients' money into their own pockets and spend it on booze, drugs, women, and other insane things in more insane activities. I have witnessed here is a great movie that I would not watch repetitively. The movie starts with Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) blowing cocaine onto a hooker's butt and he and his brokers throwing a little person onto a board with a dollar sign in the center. It'...
Post a Comment
Read more