Ricky: The System Wants You to Reoffend

Sundance Film Review: Ricky
Director: Rashad Frett
Bay Mills Studios, Parliament of Owls, Silver Brim Media
Premiere: 01.24

If you are even slightly politically aware in this already very stressful year of 2025, you most likely know the depressing statistics when it comes to how often people who have spent time in prison are likely to reoffend. At least 82% of individuals released from state prisons were rearrested at least once during the 10 years following their release. Within one year of release, 43% of formerly incarcerated people were rearrested. In Rashad Frett’s feature film debut Ricky, we watch that statistic play out in a span of 112 minutes. 

Ricardo (Ricky) Smith, played by the engrossingly talented Stephan James (Race, Selma), is a 30-year-old man readjusting to the outside world after a 15-year prison stint. Yes, you read that right, he was only 15 years old when he was tried as an adult and sent to prison. Ricky attempts to get a job, gets to the support group meetings he’s required to attend, learns how to facetime, loses his virginity and even gets his driving permit in the few weeks he’s out. Interwoven between all of this, though, we watch as Ricky struggles with (horrifyingly accurate) anxiety attacks, showing up on time to meet with his parole officer Joanne (Sheryl Lee Ralph, Abbott Elementary) and even wrecking his younger brother James’ (Maliq Johnson, Grand Army) car — commiting a hit and run in the process. Ricky wants so desperately to get his life in order and become an established barber in his city, yet it feels like everyone, and everything, is working against him and wants him back in lock up. 

Rashad Frett and Lin Que Ayoung’s writing is exactly everything you’d want from a film: well-timed moments of humor followed by serious high stakes that are balanced perfectly. Frett and Ayoung don’t give you all the details at once; they make you work for them. Bit by bit, they trust their audience to follow along and piece together Ricky’s whole story rather than spoon feeding it to you. They also trust that you, the audience member, is smart enough to realize that these challenges Ricky faces (and must overcome to avoid going back to prison) are not only created by those around him, but by a system that is designed to fail you with little remorse or understanding for your circumstances. 

Not only that, but they invest time in creating not just well-rounded and fully formed main characters you can’t help but become emotionally invested in (like James’ gut-wrenching performance of a 30 year old who is still somewhat mentally 15), but side characters as well — like parole officer Joanna, Ricky’s potential love interest Jaz (Imani Lewis) and Ricky’s mother (a potential award-winning, and heartbreaking, performance from Simbi Kali). Hell, even Titus Welliver’s minor character of Mr. Torino is one you’ll not soon forget after your first viewing. Frett also excels at world building with documentary-like cinematography filled with crucial shots of the city, and people, that Ricky interacts with. 

To call Ricky an important film would be an understatement. Out of everything that’s come out of Sundance this year, if you’re only able to watch one film, I highly encourage you to experience the masterpiece that is Ricky. Rashad Frett is daring us to not only educate ourselves, but to look with a more empathetic eye at stories of those formerly incarcerated and those who have been incarcerated multiple times. These stories are not as black and white as our American judicial system wants you to think they are. —Yonni Uribe

Read more of SLUG’s coverage of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.