USA 2018
Opening March 7, 2019
Directed by: Yann Demange
Writing credits: Andy Weiss, Logan Miller
Principal actors: Matthew McConaughey, Richie Merritt, Bel Powley, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Brian Tyree Henry
Detroit in the 1980s is a city of crime and drug violence, where there are at least two guns for every person in the Detroit metropolitan area. This is the environment where Rick Wershe Jr., a baby-faced, charismatic and streetwise teen would become the youngest FBI informant by the age of 14. Rick Wershe Jr. lives in a world of domestic dysfunction with his father, Richard Sr., a self - made business hustler and gun dealer and his sister, Dawn, a rebel with a drug addiction. Rick and his father have an unorthodox father - son relationship. They are business partners attending gun shows to scam guns on the cheap from unscrupulous dealers.
When his father is caught taking liberties with the gun sales laws, the police threaten him with jail, so Rick, in an attempt to save his father, agrees to become a secret paid informant. At the time, Rick is not involved with the drug scene but he knows his way around and knows the players in his racially mixed neighborhoods. His assignment is to infiltrate the Curry Crew, who dominate the East Detroit drug scene. Rick’s handlers from the FBI and Detroit Police supply the underage informant with pocket money, airline tickets and a fake ID. Things get out of hand and soon Rick is too deep down the rabbit hole to save himself from self-destruction.
A sad tale about Detroit and the reality of the notorious drug scene. Rick is Michigan’s longest serving, non-violent juvenile drug offender. He spends the next 29 years in a Michigan Prison. (Charis H.)