‘Ricky’ Review: Stephan James Steals The Show As A Struggling Ex-Con – Sundance Film Festival
The amount of effort it takes to be a law-abiding citizen in America—and anywhere else, for that matter—is the subject of Ricky, Rashad Frett’s thoughtful feature debut, starring Stephan James in the kind of A Star Is Born role more typical of festivals past. On the surface, it’s a social-realist drama about a broken legal system that mostly works to keep convicted criminals in jail for life. James, however, brings a depth and humanity to the title role that makes it much more than an issue-of-the-week movie, and the recent success of films such as Sing Sing and Nickel Boys suggests that it could get a much more sympathetic landing than it might have done even a year ago.
The setting is the Caribbean community in Connecticut, although this is likely more a personal touchstone for the director than a plot point. When we meet him, Ricky, AKA Ricardo Smith—is working a mundane job for an old friend, shifting boxes. On the way home, local hoods offer him weed and try to mug him when he refuses, causing him to run, although his behavior suggests that’s not so much scared as concerned with extricating himself from bad company. A chance encounter with single mom Jaz (Imani Lewis) fills in a little more of his backstory; he’s a barber, he lives at home with his mother, he doesn’t have a car, and he doesn’t even know his own cellphone number.
More from Deadline
The mystery thickens when Ricky is forced to undergo a background check and storms out. The penny drops when his parole office Joanne (Sheryl Lee Ralph) turns up at his door, warning Ricky that employment is a condition of his very recent release. Maybe, he reasons, he could cut hair on a freelance basis, but he needs to get a steady job right now, and time is running out. He’s already been out of jail for 21 days, Joanne reminds him. “You’ll be lucky to make it to 30.”
The circumstance of Ricky’s incarceration are drip-fed from here on, notably via his interactions with the older, more streetwise Cheryl (Andrene Ward-Hammond), whom he meets at a self-help meeting for ex-cons. Ricky, she learns, has spent half his life in jail, having been tried as an adult and sentenced to 15 years for his part in an attempted armed robbery. This explains a lot; though he’s a big guy and works out, Ricky is something of a man-child, as Cheryl soon learns when she tries, semi-successfully, to seduce him.
It’s baked into the premise of the movie that Ricky will not have an easy time on the outside, but the biggest surprise Frett’s film delivers is just how heavily stacked the odds are against him—though it begins as a low-key hangout movie, there’s always a very real sense of danger here. In some ways Frett’s movie is about the freedoms we take for granted, and every choice that Ricky makes could go either way. The clincher comes when Ricky steals his brother’s car, driving it without a license and insurance, and, after building to an almost unbearable level of tension, the story takes a shocking and quite unexpectedly violent turn.
Though it is obviously heightened for narrative purposes, the drama here is never forced, and it is not reassuring to see, over the end credits, that the fictional Ricky’s plight is based on many, many similar real-life stories—black and white, male and female. But, more importantly, Frett looks at all the other characters caught up in the ripple effect caused by recidivist crime. Ricky’s poor mother has hardly slept a wink in 15 years, ever since that fateful knock at the door, and despite her stone-cold front, Joanne, an old friend of the Smiths, is actually doing her best to keep Ricky on the straight and narrow. Frett handles these scenes incredibly well, and his sometimes overly hectic visual style obscures the fact that he’s a talented writer of dialogue and very good with actors.
James, though, is the centerpiece of this more than promising debut, giving a generous, humble performance that ensures the real message of the movie gets through. As Cheryl says, “When we get locked up, our families get locked up too.”
Title: Ricky
Festival: Sundance (US Dramatic Competition)
Sales agent: Sunshine Sachs Morgan & Lylis
Director/screenwriter: Rashad Frett
Cast: Stephan James, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Titus Welliver, Maliq Johnson, Imani Lewis, Simbi Kali
Running time: 1 hr 52 mins
Best of Deadline
Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.