Asante Blackk

Luis Guzmán

Melvin Gregg

Alex R. Hibbert

Coral Peña

Cassandra Freeman

Stella Doyle

Xavier Jiménez

Sue Kim

Andre Blackwell

Ka'mani Sanai' Brown

Madison Sonae Brown

Curtiss Cook Jr.

Tierre Diaz

Michael Excell

Hassan Johnson

Musa Mahoney

Julito McCullum

Marcia Myers

Ade Otukoya

Qui Moo Powell

Daniela Rosario

Gus Scharr

Valentina Tammaro

Tristan Timmons

Henry Yuk

Jamal Lloyd Johnson

Ace Vargas

Christina Parsons

Ruben Rivera

Moe Larena

Flora Ronzone

Joana Chaves

Ryan Alan Dearth

Daisy Curbeon

Aristotle Torres

Jasmin Way

Gus Deardoff

Robert Aguilar

Cemi Guzman

Datari Turner

Jan McAdoo

Chris Triana

Lizzie Shapiro

Bonsu Thompson

Cheyenne Ford

Randal Sandler

Jamie Foxx

Martin Cabrera

Claude Amadeo

Eric Branco

Michael D'Alto

Matheus Bastos

Jose Ramirez

Pierre Charles

Anthony Cappellino

Junior Paixão

Deanna Brigidi

Ben Rezendes

Vesselin Todorov-Vinnie

Whitney Anne Adams

Drama

Story Ave

The Space Program

Mero Mero Productions

Foxxhole Productions

Dark Rabbit Productions

FirstGen Content

United States of America

Brent Marchant

For many at-risk youth, there comes a turning point where they can head off in one direction or another, each with vastly different long-term outcomes. For South Bronx graffiti artist Kadir Grayson (Asante Blackk) – a gifted illustrator with real talent who’s desperately struggling to find himself and reconcile his grief for the loss of his younger brother – that comes when he falls in with the wrong crowd and fails at proving himself in an unsuccessful attempt at holding up a aging but streetwise transit worker, Luis Torres (Luis Guzmán). Instead of filing charges against the confused young man, Luis takes Kadir under his wing to help him straighten out his life before it’s too late. It’s an uplifting and heartwarming tale, albeit somewhat clichéd and predictable at times, especially when it comes to the overlong wait for certain all-too-entirely expected revelations to surface. Nevertheless, director Aristotle Torres’s debut feature provides viewers with more than its share of time-honored wisdom and hope for those who could easily end up following a different and more destructive course. The fine performances of Blackk and Guzmán convincingly sell the material, which is presented with compelling cinematography and film editing, though the sound quality can stand some improvement, particularly in the opening half-hour, when the dialogue becomes almost unintelligible at times. Still, there’s much to be said for the insights served up in this intergenerational coming of age drama, proving that there’s always a possibility to set things right, even when they seem to be headed in an irretrievable downward spiral. And that’s a “story” that’s more than just a street name.