White Boy Rick Movie Review

White Boy Rick (2018)

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Written by: Andy Weiss and Logan Miller & Noah Miller (written by)
Directed by: Yann Demange
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Richie Merritt, Bel Powley, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Brian Tyree Henry, Rory Cochrane, RJ Cyler, Bruce Dern
Rated: R
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Plot
The story of teenager Richard Wershe Jr., who became an undercover informant for the FBI during the 1980s and was ultimately arrested for drug-trafficking and sentenced to life in prison.

Verdict
This isn't anything we haven't seen before. Undercover informant movies are numerous, and while a kid is at the center of this, the movie doesn't do enough to make that stand out. The movie doesn't develop the characters much at all. McConaughey is great, but he's not on screen enough to carry this. What this is trying to do, setting it during the drug epidemic and drawing on the hypocrisy of the government falls short.
Skip it.

Review
The focus is teenager Rick. He's roped into helping the FBI by buying and selling drugs on their orders. The question early on, is he expendable?

All of this takes place during the Reagan era drug epidemic. The national message is that drugs are bad, but the FBI are pushing a kid into that life. The president says no and the cops say go. Rick is on the outside, in all things. He's not a cop, but he's helping them. There's a racial divide between him and his supplier.
As he starts to make money, that creates a rift with his dad who is always scheming just to make ends meet. McConaughey plays the dad and he steals every scene. I hoped the movie would do something with that to develop Rick, but he's not much more than a cardboard cutout. We've seen informants get too deep, but this does nothing to distinguish. We never know what's going on in Rick's head.

The script is bland. This doesn't need to be all action, but the plot and story tread water. At one point we get a scene with Rick's newborn and the movie does nothing to set that up. Maybe it's there to show us that losing his family could be the worst consequence, but that is speculation on my part.

The point being made is that the FBI used Rick and threw him away when they were done with zero remorse. The drug epidemic wasn't about helping people, but boosting numbers. What happened to Rick is crazy. He went to jail for a non-violent crime and stayed in jail longer than corrupt cops and his drug dealing peers, and Rick was forced by the FBI to get into dealing.