Film Review – White Boy Rick

Richard Wershe Jr. is primarily known for being the youngest F.B.I. informant, working with the bureau at the tender age of 14. It’s a fascinating piece of trivia and likely the one and only thing interesting about “White Boy Rick,” which hazily recounts his rise and self-inflicted downfall in the world of crime. Screenwriters Andy Weiss, Logan Miller, and Noah Miller go the “Scarface” route with the Wershe’s life and times, trying to turn a bad seed into a sympathetic figure to best fit into the formulaic mechanics of the feature. The labor doesn’t take hold, and while director Yann Demange ladles on the stylistics, trying to make an underworld study set during the 1980s pop off the screen, he’s not careful enough with characterization, playing fast and loose with the details of Wershe’s life, only giving the audience just enough to keep the young man a bruised saint who’s been wronged by the system, keeping things predictable and easily digestible. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com