White Boy Rick

In the urban wasteland of 1980s Detroit, a young boy's drift into low-level crime makes him a target for the FBI in this fact-based drama. On one level, it's a shocking indictment of the skewed values of US law enforcement that they'd seek to exploit a vulnerable adolescent as a paid informer, yet at the same time the film never convinces us that protagonist Richard Wershe Jr was altogether a wronged innocent, since he obviously relishes his deepening involvement in the largely African-American drugs and firearm culture. In his US debut, French director Yann Demange (who did a fine job with gritty Troubles thriller '71) also seems a tad seduced by the gang lifestyle that the movie's supposedly criticising. Meanwhile, the drama is also limited by a flat central turn from newcomer Richie Merritt, who simply lacks the presence to carry off this streetwise chameleon, although Matthew McConaughey supplies plenty of oomph as the rascally schemer of a father. Overall, it's vividly shot in various shades of grim, but the execution proves confused and underwhelming.