1 of 5 | Stephan James stars in “Ricky,” which premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Photo courtesy of Sundance Institute
PARK CITY, UTAH Jan. 26 (UPI) — Ricky, which screened at the Sundance Film Festival, is a moving drama about the difficulties for a parolee and his family. It is subtle about the characters’ circumstances and even subtler with its message.
Ricardo Smith (Stephan James) is on parole after serving 15 years for robbery and attempted murder, in prison since he was just 15. He’s a good barber but struggles to find clients or a regular job, and confronts others involved with his crime.
The film parses out information about what led to Ricky’s arrest. Characters reference past events vaguely because they are all familiar with it, as opposed to pointed exposition for the audience.
This not only keeps the audience curious to find out more about the Smith family, but makes the drama more natural. Scenes don’t feel constructed just for a movie.
For Ricky, the demands on parolees, though justified, are so high they create a precarious situation that could collapse at any time. He needs to keep appointments with his parole officer (Sheryl Lee Ralph), find a regular job, attend parolee support meetings, and avoid any felons or drugs, which present themselves around every corner.
Ricky can’t do this alone. He doesn’t have a driver’s license yet and relies on his brother, James (Maliq Johnson) for rides.
It only takes one time for his brother to forget, or love interest Cheryl (Andrene Ward-Hammond) to escalate into a volatile scenario, and Ricky has inadvertently violated his parole.
In many ways, Ricky is still emotionally 15. He’s trying to cope with having missed out on many formative socializing years.
He might take a joke from James personally. He might trigger Cheryl and provoke an even more volatile fight.
The film continues to share more about the Smith family, the neighborhood and even the parole officer late into the film. In the script co-written by director Rashad Frett and Lin Que Ayoung, these are characters with history that only becomes clear when relevant to the current situation.
Ricky’s progress may feel like he takes one step forward and two steps back. However, there is gradual headway.
It takes patience and compassion, powerful emotions with which any piece of art can deal. Ricky embodies that without shying away from the harsh realities of the situation.
Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.