White Boy Rick
This crime drama is about Richard Wershe Jr.—a hustler who became an undercover FBI informant and then a drug kingpin before he was sentenced to life in prison for drug trafficking, all before he turned 16. It is getting a lot of hype because it’s based on outrageous, hard-to-believe true events (which happened in Detroit in the 1980s during the simultaneous crack epidemic and war on drugs), its youthful lead is a newcomer (Richie Merritt) with a similar socioeconomic background as the character he plays, and it has Matthew McConaughey doing his crazy-yet-caring blue-collar best (à la Dallas Buyers Club and True Detective) as the teen’s dad.
by Leilani Polk