Review of WHITE BOY RICK  – Rated R  – 1 hr. 50 mins

This humble opinion is brought to by you T. K. Edwards

WHITE BOY RICK  – Rated R  – 1 hr. 50 mins

Director by:  Yann Demange

Cast:  Matthew McConaughey, Richie Merritt, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Bel Powley, Rory Cochrane, Jonathan Majors, Bruce Dern, Eddie Marsan, Piper Laurie

Based on the true story of a teenager that becomes an informant for the FBI and later gets a life sentence in prison for dealing drugs.

THIS SEGMENT DOESN’T CONTAIN ANY SPOILERS

WHITE BOY RICK was a good movie, but I don’t know if this was a story that needed to be told.  It reminded me of the movie BLOW starring Johnny Depp. Both films are entertaining and both are about their main characters getting involved in the drug world and how it ultimately ruined their lives.  We keep seeing these drug dealer movies that are based on true stories and they all have one thing in common with each other, which is they try to make you sympathize with these characters that lose everything at the end of the movie.  Umm, no. I won’t do it. I can’t do it. Dealing drugs and committing crimes may seem glamorous on the silver screen, but in “real life” it’s not. It’s the easy way through life and that easy way comes with a price and that price is jail or prison.  Here’s a movie showing you how this person got to where they were at and although they may be a nonviolent criminal, they are still a criminal. Am I supposed to be upset that the drug dealer is never going to be able to see his daughter again because he got caught breaking the law?  Once again, my answer is “no”. There are no “good drug dealers” and “bad drug dealers”, there are only DRUG DEALERS (lol). Back to WHITE BOY RICK and the performances in the movie. Once again, Matthew McConaughey pulls out a great performance as a down on his luck trashy “redneck”, but we’ve seen this from him too many times before (GOLD, TRUE DETECTIVE, MUD, LARGER THAN LIFE).  McConaughey plays this character just as much as he plays the Rom Com leading man, that’s always leaning on his leading lady in the movie posters (Seriously, if you want a laugh, put the following movie posters side by side: FAILURE TO LAUNCH, HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS, FOOL’S GOLD, GHOSTS OF GIRLFRIENDS PAST). The other leading actor in WHITE BOY RICK is Richie Merritt who plays the character Rick Wershe Jr. aka White Boy Rick.  This is his first movie and his performance is well above average for someone that has never been in a single movie before, but unfortunately it is wasted on a story that is less than solid and reminiscent of all the other “based on a true story” drug dealer movies that have been made. WHITE BOY RICK is not a movie I would recommend you go to the theaters to see, nor is it one I would tell you to watch at home either. You could watch it at home if you really wanted to, but I’d just recommend you watch BLOW instead.  Until next time, thanks for reading.

P.S. – There is no post credit scene.