Rashad Frett attends the 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere of “Ricky” at Eccles Theatre on January 24, 2025, in Park City, UT. (Photo by George Pimentel/Shutterstock for Sundance Film Festival)
By Lucy Spicer
It’s not often that a film receives a standing ovation before the screening even starts. But when director of the Sundance Film Festival Eugene Hernandez brings filmmaker Rashad Frett up to the podium to introduce Ricky, a good number of people rise to their feet, with the rest joining as Frett greets them, “Wow. Stand up, everybody! Stand up!”
Premiering on January 24 in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at Eccles Theatre in Park City, Ricky is a testament to how quickly the seed of a film can grow when it receives financial and creative support. The story began as a short film that Frett developed as his thesis project at New York University. The short screened at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, and then it grew into a feature that Frett co-wrote with his friend and collaborator Lin Que Ayoung, whom he met at NYU. Frett and Ayoung further developed the story at the Sundance Institute Directors and Screenwriters Labs. “Big shoutout to Sundance,” mentions Ayoung at the film’s post-premiere Q&A, “Because we were blessed to go to the Feature [Film Program] labs, where we had incredible advisors and we continue to have that support.”
It’s clear that Ricky has connected with audiences since its inception. “It was a labor of love and necessity,” says Frett before the screening begins. “I cast a lot of friends and family in this film. This film is really important; I lost a lot of friends and family members due to recidivism.”
The threat of recidivism hangs over Ricky’s titular character from the moment the film starts. Portrayed with mesmerizing nuance by actor and executive producer Stephan James, 30-year-old Ricky is back living with his Caribbean mother in Hartford, Connecticut, after being incarcerated for half his life. “This particular character was 15 when he went in. This particular character was tried as an adult and put into an adult prison,” explains Ayoung at the post-screening Q&A. “That’s what really drew me to this character, because when he came out, even though he was 30, he was pretty much still 15, a 15-year-old grown man.”
Navigating post-incarceration life isn’t an easy task. Ricky doesn’t know how to drive, he has trouble operating his cellphone, and he has little experience interacting socially with women. And that’s all on top of everything he has to do to fulfill the conditions of his parole. He needs a job, but people are wary of hiring felons. Ricky is a gifted barber, but attempting to build an independent business won’t cut it for his tough but caring parole office (Sheryl Lee Ralph). The systemic barriers to Ricky’s success reflect a very real deficiency in resources for formerly incarcerated persons in the U.S.
James approached the role of Ricky with great consideration for the weight the character carries on his shoulders. “The film sort of strikes me as a two-pronged thing because it’s a story about reacclimating into civilian life for sure, but it’s also a story about a man stepping into his manhood. It’s a coming-of-age story,” he explains during the Q&A. “So often we see the mug shot. You never hear the story, and so it meant so much to me to be able to bring color to this young man and bring him beyond a statistic.”
James’ convincing performance fits right into a film whose emotional core benefits from an air of authenticity. “What I like to do to get inspiration — I like to either look into my life or look into people around me and my community, and a lot of my peers went through the criminal justice system unfortunately,” explains the director. Frett himself comes from a Caribbean community in Connecticut, and most of his cast have Caribbean roots as well. Imani Lewis — who plays the intriguing Jaz, whose son receives a haircut from Ricky — sums up the feeling of community that was present during the film shoot. “In terms of being on set, it was like kismet,” she says. “You got a bunch of New Yorkers, you got a bunch of Caribbeans, we have plenty to talk about, it was like we had known each other for years. And we all got acclimated — at least, I got acclimated — pretty quickly. And then the script is gorgeous. So what wasn’t there to want to be a part of?”
