Rashad Frett’s dramatic short film Ricky opens with a shot of the titular character’s hand feverishly shaking. The words of a parole officer can be heard, but it is Ricky’s (Parish Bradley) body language that speaks volumes. In a few simple, but methodically constructed shots, Frett’s tells you so much about his protagonist. Ricky is a man who has recently been released from prison but, in some ways, he is still caged in his mind.

The fear of returning to prison is like a suffocating necklace that he cannot remove. This fear complicates his attempts to re-assimilate back into society. Haunted by the bad choices that caused his lengthy incarceration, Ricky walks around like a traumatized war veteran who no longer recognizes the homeland he once knew. His younger brother James (Maliq Johnson) is grown and now teaching him things, such as how to drive, and his mother’s (Simbi Kali) face cannot hide her fear of losing her son to the law all over again.

As if reacclimatizing to this new family dynamic was not stressful enough, Ricky’s parole officers give him a week to find work or else he will be sent back to jail.

In holding the threat of incarceration over Ricky’s head like an immovable cloud, Frett constructs an intriguing portrait of the inner turmoil that America’s prison-industrial complex causes for those within the system. Throughout the short, the viewer is frequently reminded of the emotional scars that the central character is dealing with. Frett emphasizes this by distorting the audio whenever Ricky drifts into his own thoughts when others are talking to him, and through subtle gestures including the character leaving the door a jar when alone in a bedroom with a female friend who is clearly into him.

By keeping its protagonist trapped in his own head, Ricky is as much a film about the paralyzing nature of fear as it is about choices and consequences. Through Bradley’s strong performance, one understands that what makes Ricky such a tragic character is that he desires nothing more than to avoid the mistakes and vices of the past. However, in staring into the sun that lights his desired path, he inadvertently blinds himself to the small decisions that can easily pull him back into the darkness.

Conveying a wealth of complex emotions in the spaces where things are left unsaid, Ricky is a wonderfully layered work. Pulling strong performances from his ensemble cast, Bradley in particular is a revelation, Frett announces himself as a director who is more than ready to make the leap to feature filmmaking. His film effectively captures a few of the numerous hardships that come with starting life over after serving time.

Ricky is not only a somber reminder of the lack of support ex-convicts receive upon release, but a meditative exploration of the choices that binds fear and regret together. The path to redemption may be paved with good intentions, but Ricky shows that each unguided step can lead one right back to the place you fear the most.

Ricky is screening as a part of Sundance 2023’s Short Film Program 1.

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