Ricky (Sundance 2025) Review – It Takes A Village To Raise A Child But Where Is The Village Once They’ve Become Grown?
“Ricky” begins as a rarely seen point of view about post-incarceration, follows a recidivisim storyline that is all too familiar.
Spoiler Alert: This summary and review contains spoilers.
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“Ricky” Film Details
- Runtime: 1 Hour and 52 Minutes
- Release Date: January 30, 2025
- Initially Available On/Via: Film Festival – Sundance
- Advisory Film Rating: Not Rated
- Genre(s): Drama
- Director(s): Rashad Frett
- Writer(s): Rashad Frett, Lin Que Ayoung
Plot Summary
Ricky just got out after a 15-year stint and is on parole for a year. As with most who get out on parole, life isn’t easy. The world has moved on, technology has changed, people have grown up, and Ricky is expected to acclimate as if you had all of this at your fingertips while inside. Thankfully, he has his mom and little brother, but they have jobs and lives of their own, and with a parole officer like Joanne, Ricky doesn’t have it easy, but considering he has been the man of the house since he was 13, when has he had it easy?
But, despite all that is against him, he has to find a way, suck it up, and figure it out. However, if you lock a boy away for 15 years and send him to prison, do you end up with a man when he gets out?
Character Descriptions
Ricky (Stephan James)
Ricky is a 30-year-old man, a first-generation American with a family originating from the Virgin Islands, who, since he was 13, was the man of the house, and at 15, he went to prison. But, with a drive to work hard and an interest in cutting hair, he hopes to get a break to build up his life to something that he can live with.
- The actor is also known for their role in “If Beale Street Could Talk.”
Joanne (Sheryl Lee Ralph)
Joanne is Ricky’s parole officer, who has a history with his family that is slightly sordid.
- The actor is also known for their role in “The Young Wife.”
Cheryl (Andrene Ward-Hammond)
Cheryl struggles with her anger, and it has gotten to the point she has court-ordered anger management. But, while someone who doesn’t suffer foolishness and ambiguity, Cheryl has a soft side. It’s just that a short fuse will blow up that soft side like a firecracker in a teddy bear.
- The actor is also known for their role in “Claws: Season 3.”
Review
Characters
Highlight(s)
- Understanding You Are Looking At A 15 Year Old In A 30 Year Old’s Body [82/100]
It is understood, for most characters, they come with pasts, current struggles and uncertain futures. However, it is only with Ricky that you hear and see what someone’s story has done to them. As noted in the next topic, a lot of the members of Ricky’s surroundings don’t necessarily give us fleshed-out stories to help you understand how they ended up with a certain mindset or issue. It is mainly based on assumption, but Ricky is different.
Ricky very much comes off like someone who got put into time out before he could finish coming of age, and now, at 30, he has arrested development. He doesn’t know how to be with a woman since he probably didn’t get to have much experience being with girls when he was 15. Anger issues? Oh, you bet he has them, and with being in prison longer than he was conscious of being alive, you can see how prison has embedded and programmed him in ways that can’t quickly and easily be undone.
This creates a character with layers who makes every heartbreaking moment feel like a punch and furthers the feeling that his village has failed him, and while it is trying to compensate now, there is the question of whether they are willing to give grace to someone, by age, is a grown man, but has only 15 years in the real world.
On The Fence
- It’s Clear It Takes A Village, But We Don’t Really Get To Know The Village [76/100]
I would submit it is pushed in “Ricky” that not having the village he and his family needed led to him getting into trouble and eventually being locked away for 15 years. Now that he is out, you see people seemingly want to support him and be the village he didn’t have before, but one of our issues is that, outside of Ricky, these people don’t really get fleshed out.
Most characters are single issue, and in terms of background, we don’t get the kind of development which will allow you to understand how everything that happened from A, B, and C, leads to where they are now. A prime example would be Cheryl, someone who goes to the same anger management class, or mandatory support group, Ricky does and has insecurities, among other issues, she is dealing with. Her background isn’t fleshed out so you can learn how A got to Z, but like a lot of “Ricky,” there is this sense that if you know, you know.
This can become frustrating, for it can feel like the nuance a lot of these characters should get, you’re left to fill in. Why is Cheryl someone with anger issues? Well, you assume it is because she is a Black woman who grew up feeling unprotected. Why is she attracted to Ricky? Maybe because he lacks baggage, is vulnerable, and potentially hasn’t been with someone before, so maybe he would appreciate her more? Heck, it could also be because she has a thing for guys who were in jail – who knows?
But you see the problem with those assumptions: it is easy to strip her of what could make her an individual because you have to rely on what you know or, rather, assume, which can strip her and most other characters of their humanity. The sole exception might be Sheryl Lee Ralph’s character, Joanne. There isn’t a push to give her parity to Ricky and really match him, but she is able to break down who she is and where she came from.
Now, is it done so that it can feel a bit like a showcase? Yes. But if you were ever someone who got in trouble, especially a Black boy or man, and a Black man or woman tried to break through to you, what Joanne revealed, her trying to show her life hasn’t been a silver staircase, can trigger old memories. But it is Sheryl Lee Ralph, so to expect anything less than a character who stands out would be foolish.
World-Building & Culture
Highlight(s)
- Real People Have Real Problems [80/100]
Regarding the depiction of East Hartford, Connecticut, “Ricky” isn’t really pushing what it is like to live there in such a way you could visit and quickly identify places. However, there are attempts for you to understand life for people on parole, and while it never goes so far to be illuminating, there is enough for those who are studious to maybe want to look into how hard it is for people who got out to get jobs. Never mind how the parole system works, amongst other topics.
Story & Pacing
On The Fence
- It Can Feel Too Familiar [74/100]
While it has felt like a long time since we’ve seen something that feels like it focuses on Black trauma, watching “Ricky” reminds me why I, and many people, have begun to have an aversion to it, especially if it is more straightforward rather than like “A Thousand and One,” which may have included struggle and trauma, but I felt like it gave it a new lens, a different path, and overall a vibe that this isn’t a different locale and characters, but same story. For with “Ricky” starting off feeling different in wanting to show what a 30-year-old man with 15 years of real life and 15 years of prison experience looks like and how they operate.
But what is a movie without conflict? And once life decides to knock Ricky on his behind, it follows a path that feels all too familiar and which can make seeing mistake after mistake hard to watch.
Diverse Hooks & (Re)Watch Value
On The Fence
- Once It Is Clear Things Will Go Wrong, The Film Does Lose Grip [75/100]
The initial hook for me was the perspective of an adult man who has been in prison half of his life, and he went in as a child. Him playing catch up, re-establishing himself as someone’s big brother and son, and either making new friends or reconnecting with old ones, there was an expected tenderness there. For a lot of times, when I see films like this, support is minimal because the person is an adult, and so they are treated as such.
However, seeing how Cheryl initially interacts with Ricky, how he looks at another woman he may have an interest in, and then you have how Joanne does, it showed the push and pull between his age physically and where he might mentally be at. But once it became clear, “Ricky” will shift from learning to how the system can be set up to see you fail and increase recidivism rates? I honestly found myself checking out.
This isn’t to say every story has to be forward and happy, but I think the route originally taken with “Ricky” isn’t well-traversed and could have helped this stand out far more than the path it ultimately took.
Overall
Our Rating (77/100): Mixed (Divisive)
Where “Ricky” was initially going and where it ends up may not be aligned with what you may have expected, but there is no denying that when it chooses the path less taken, it is good. But, when it decides to have Ricky’s life spiral, it doesn’t become bad; it’s just a bit of a disappointment.
Content Information
- Dialog: Cursing
- Violence: Blood, Self-Harm (In Dialog), Domestic Violence
- Sexual Content: Sexual Situations (Implied)
- Miscellaneous: Drinking, Drug Use, Smoking
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