A grimly effective telling of the story of a young man, in a broken Detroit at the height of the crack cocaine crisis which goes well with the recently-viewed documentary Crack: Cocaine, Corruption and Conspiracy, whose title effectively also sums up this drama.
The relationship between Rick and his father, very effectively played by Matthew McConaughey, is effectively and touchingly shown, particularly in the latter part and McC very well captures the air of desperation of his character for whom ‘bright times are just around the corner’, despite all evidence to the contrary while Richie Merrit as the son looked particularly young and vulnerable, not lest because of his bum-fluff moustache! Indeed the father/son relationship was fascinating as often the two roles seemed to be reversed with Richie providing a degree of realism that was beyond McC.The addiction (but eventual cure) of the daughter/sister adds another powerful layer to the story and one of the few more positive aspects of the tale.
Cinematically it was vividly told with very effective use of extreme close-up and slowly unfolding scenes used very powerfully, aprticularly in the latter part of the film as when Richie meets his baby son for the first time.
the FBI do not come out of this well, obviously struggling to cope with the situation in this, and many other, cities at this time, but they used young Rick quite coldly and with no help or assistance when he was captured and imprisoned. The sentence that he received brought out the craziness of the sentencing policies at this time (also well shown in the above documentary) althuogh the ending was somewhat more positive and it was very effective in hearing the actual Rick speak once he knew he was about to be released - largely I think as the particular law under which he was imprisoned was rescinded.
Better than many critics judge it to have been, I think.