No, this is not a biopic of that James White, the 5th runner up of the 2013 NBA Slam Dunk Contest, former Cincinnati Bearcat, and high school teammate of College Park playground legend Willie “I bet you don’t meet a lot of white guys named Willie” Hopkins.  James White is a film about a degenerate, self medicating 20-something going through a rough patch in New York City.  It’s not a feel good movie by any means but it is extremely well acted, most notably the titular character played by Christopher Abbott, who appears in close to 100% of the frames and much of which are two feet in front of his face.

You may remember Abbott as a minor character on the first two or three seasons of Girls, before he famously quit the show because of creative differences with Lena Dunham.  Twitter picked on him for about a day once that news broke (“who does he think he is”, etc..), but the range he displays in this movie shows he may have been justified in going solo.  Oh, and Kid Cudi plays Abbott’s best friend, always a welcome presence. Tier 4