Forever Rich
By Barbara Shulgasser-Parker,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Rapper makes repeated bad decisions; violence, cursing, sex.
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Forever Rich
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What's the Story?
In FOREVER RICH, Rich (Jonas Smulders) is an up-and-coming Dutch rap star celebrating the promise of a $3 million contract Sony has offered him. With metal front teeth, multiple tattoos, and manic self love, he has a concert before 10,000 fans lined up that night. He's left poverty behind for a swanky apartment with a girlfriend who has given him an infant son. Even his drunken mother wears jewelry and designer clothes. He has one problem. Everything he says and does demonstrates that he's an egomaniacal, clueless idiot and this state of affairs strongly points to the inevitability of negative consequences as the story builds. When he and his best friend-manager Tony (Daniel Kolf) are hijacked by a gang of masked young motorcyclists carrying machetes, Rich could be grateful his throat wasn't slashed. But the gang posts videos of the understandably fearful Rich shaking with the knife at his throat and instead of gratitude, he feels humiliated and angry. Once social media feedback suggests Rich is too White to be a real rapper and wasn't gangster enough to fight the gang off, he also becomes vengeful. From here on, every decision he makes underscores that he's every bit the inept idiot his best friend and girlfriend label him. He lies, threatens, puts his hands around the throat of a woman, threatens to kill someone, kidnaps, holds hostage, evades the police, beats someone, humiliates someone, and accidentally shoots someone. He also speaks inappropriately to kids about the importance of looking tough and making lots of money, all of his advice laced with curse words. In the end, his actions are financially rewarded.
Is It Any Good?
Once upon a time, when gang members stole someone's property at knifepoint, the world turned against the thieves. In the upside-down world portrayed in Forever Rich, the attackers are heroes and the victim, a rap star, is mocked and humiliated online for being weak in the face of armed aggressors. It's the context of this insanity that the movie runs on for 89 minutes of stupidity, anger, and unprovoked violence, making it nearly unwatchable.
In this world, the police are laughably useless and easily foiled. Every decision Rich makes is the wrong one and should land him in jail or worse, yet in the end he performs to an avid crowd of 10,000 who love him all the more for his violent, antisocial ways. Instead of cutting ties with jerks like Rich, record labels want him even more now, which is why this movie sends exactly the wrong message to young viewers. Smulders gives this his all in a physical, almost crazed performance, but the script erases the character's humanity. Every minute of the action reminds us that there's a reason that the people closest to him, his best friend and the mother of his child, keep calling him "stupid" and selfish. The question this raises is how do we evaluate a culture that denounces rather than sympathizes with someone who shows fear because a knife is at his throat?
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about what kind of person Rich shows himself to be. Do you think he has any sense of the damage he does to others? Why or why not?
Do you think the adulation of fans can distort the way a person views him or herself? How so?
Why do you it's important for some people to never be seen as weak? Do you think being attacked by an armed robber shows weakness or bad luck?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming: October 1, 2021
- Cast: Jonas Smulders , Daniel Kolf , Yootha Wong-Loi-Sing , Sinem Kavus
- Director: Shady El-Hamus
- Studio: Netflix
- Genre: Drama
- Run time: 89 minutes
- MPAA rating: NR
- Last updated: February 17, 2023
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