Story Ave

So it like this, the movie story was not bad, but i had a problem connecting with the main characters. Both Kadir Grayson and Luis Torres had something bad happened in their life and were suffering. Over the movie after they crossed paths, we saw them connecting and becoming good friends. But they didn't really talk that much, the kid Kadir was mostly sketching his brothers face in his scrapbook, while Luis seemed to be constantly getting drunk. They were both running from the reality, because they couldn't face it. The movie is long enough and it could show us a little more detailed story. It just feels like the movie was missing a spark.

Story Ave is a film with strong performances throughout with a solid story. After falling in with the wrong crowd, a gifted teen named Kadir tries to rob Luis, a no-nonsense MTA conductor. To Kadir's surprise, Luis offers his friendship and shows the young man how his artistic talent could lead to a better life. The movie can be predictable in parts but it's the performances where this film really shines. The movie starts to lose it's steam about 2/3 of the way but regains it's balance and sticks the landing. There is a great message to be found here and I really wish this movie could have been marketed more so more people could enjoy it. Story Ave gets a high 8 stars out of 10 from me.

The film starts out as a standard movie about a boy in The Bronx who has more potential than his circumstances allow for, and it plays like a standard version of that movie with a couple of unnecessary changes that end up flipping the message in an unintentional way. The kid is neglected, has no father, has a dead brother, Mom for some reason just lets him do whatever while judging him from a distance. The twist in that scenario is that the brother was not killed by inner city violence, he died in an accident. What does that add to the movie? I guess a little sad backstory, something for the kid to be upset about, but it doesn't really say anything about his circumstances. The kid gets into graffiti art and is part of a crew, who apparently rob people to fund their graffiti art? I've known a few graffiti artists and they weren't involved in anything like that, don't know if that's how it works elsewhere but that seemed a little much. The leader of this crew is an art-school dropout with a chip on his shoulder, who recognizes the kid's potential and wants to hold him back out of spite for the art world or something. Very underdeveloped portion of the plot. The kid ends up trying to rob Luis Guzman who instead gives him a meal and some money and becomes something of a mentor to the kid. Suddenly half way through the movie it's revealed he's a terrible alcoholic, which didn't seem to show itself at all up to that point. Him and the kid get into a fight and then Guzman's time on set must have been up because suddenly he was dead. Felt like something was missing there. Ultimately the movie seems to be one of those "Sure the hood is rough, but this is our home and our culture" movies. Instead the message seemed to be "The hood is a bad place, the people in it are failures trying to hold you back, get out at all costs. Oh yea, and graffiti art is for criminals with underdeveloped talents". I don't think that's the message they intended, but that's sort of what they wound up saying.

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 desparately 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.