"White Boy Rick" receives mixed reviews, but praises for playing

Associated Press liked his sense of place and his great image. "Overall, it's a disconcerting story of the harshness of adults who have encouraged Rick to get into this position (betrayals will boil your blood) and a charge on how American laws often hurt to the people of the most vulnerable classes, "said the PA.

More: The event "White Boy Rick" presents a family drama on screen – and at the theater

But many critics think that the film's ambitions do not really freeze.

"White Boy Rick is an exciting story, if not that, it's even an entertaining tale, in an unsavory way," said the Washington Post. "But the fact that there is a deeper meaning to a story that is just trying to say something about the fragility of the family is debatable."

According to the Boston Globe Review, the movie "has a lot of good ratings: the drama, the pathos, a touch of news, a terrifying performance of the first actor Richie Merritt in the title role and a strong support of Matthew McConaughey as Rick & # 39; s likable weak life of a father, Richard Wershe Sr. "

More: The Drug Crisis in the 1980s in Detroit Appears in "White Boy Rick"

Merritt, in particular, is distinguished by its realistic teenager presence with an opaque and hard facade that keeps everything inside. The 17-year-old from Baltimore, who has never played before, was discovered in his high school during a national search.

"Merritt, a remarkable find that makes an indelible impression in his very first role on the screen," said the AV Club. "Giving Rick the right mix of bravado and clumsiness, it's like an unlikely gene invasion of a young Matt Dillon with a young Seth Rogen." Do not expect him to go away for 30 years . "

According to some critics, one of the main weaknesses of "White Boy Rick" is the fact that Wershe is a white character in a predominantly black city.

"If the movie was" Black Boy Rick ", would it have been done?" asked the New York Times. "It's a legitimate question since the big-screen US fiction about really nice and fully humanized black criminals is unusual and the only thing significant about the main character of this movie is that it's been exploited by law when he was barely old. "

Collider's website said: "The compassion of Ricky and his family is not about the rest of the mostly African-American cast, so the injustices inflicted on Ricky are hollow … In this way, all the characters Blacks serve as a background to Ricky's story, and Ricky's story can not decide whether it's about a young Scarface or a poor boy. . "

The strongest agreement among critics may be about the roundness without glamor of the retro Detroit frame.

Scummy, skanky and grubby appear in the descriptions of the film's visual style. As the New York Post has said, the movie does not try to "clean up history or make a bad neighborhood look good."

"Scuzzy is the word to describe the look and feel of tetanus that Demange brings to 1984 in Detroit," said Variety.

To his vision of Detroit, that's it. Although the production was filmed briefly here, most of the film was shot in Cleveland.