Review: White Boy Rick

Image courtesy of Columbia Pictures.

Yann Demange's "White Boy Rick" has some inspired soundtrack choices and does a decent job of capturing the aura and gritty look of 1980s-era Detroit, but it's otherwise a movie you've seen all too often - most recently, "Hot Summer Nights," another overly familiar retread of gangster movie cliches that featured a teenage boy as its lead.

"White Boy Rick" does the same thing - but, of course, it's based on a true story, and a rather compelling one at that. And yet, the film follows the typical beats of a picture of this type: young, naive kid gets involved in criminal activity, is lured by the power and money that come with it (although Rick is inspired more by keeping his dysfunctional family afloat than greed) and eventually faces a downfall.

Richard Wershe Jr. (newcomer Richie Merritt, whose performance betrays a sort of innocence that varies in its effectiveness) was, according to this film, at one point the longest-held nonviolent offender in Michigan's history. At age 17, he was sentenced to life - although he was finally released last year - for possessing a large amount of cocaine. Apparently, his drug selling gig first started at age 15 when the FBI approached him and forced him to do so to bring down lower level drug dealers after Rick's hoodlum father (Matthew McConaughey, clearly having fun here) gets busted for illegally selling weapons and the bureau is able to effectively blackmail him.

Rick makes his mark in the drug game and befriends a local crew in which he is the only white boy, hence the titular nickname. There's a fairly shocking sequence halfway through the film in which one of his friends attempts to take him out. There's also a fair amount of squirming to be had during the sequences - which are among the film's most effective - involving Rick's drugged out sister (Bel Powley), who McConaughey's paterfamilias repeatedly fails to lure back to the family's ramshackle home in Detroit.

There's something to be said for a theme that pops up several times during the picture in which Rick's black friends make reference to the fact that if they were busted for the same crimes he has committed, they would not have access to the same leniency that he might get. Then, he gets locked away for life, and it seems unclear what the purpose of including those earlier scenes meant to convey.

All in all, "White Boy Rick" is occasionally entertaining and is based on a fairly engrossing story. It's just that its filmmakers have utilized an overused narrative paradigm here that fails to differentiate it from so many other films - "Hot Summer Nights," "Blow," you get the picture - that have covered similar ground. In other words, there could have been a better film here, especially considering that its director was responsible for the tense "'71." Ultimately, it comes off as the crime movie of the week.