Near the end of Aristotle Torres’ assured feature debut “Story Ave,” a title card comes up on the screen, noting the film is “by The Bronx.” It’s a short moment, leading into the end credits, but it nevertheless speaks volumes to the textured approach that Torres gives to a film that, at least in its outline form, could feel cliché. A narrative about a gifted young artist Kadir (Asante Blackk), who falls into a gang as a result of buried trauma revolving around this family, only to be pulled out by a kind, lonely, older man Luis (Luis Guzmán) might have the surface trappings of a move-of-the-week, but Torres brings out enough stylistic flourishes and lived-in performances to elevate “Story Ave” into being one of the undersung movies of the year so far. 
READ MORE: ‘Story Ave’ Trailer: Luis Guzmán & Asante Blackk Star In A Touching Tale About Growing Up In The Bronx
Of course, it helps that the core relationship between Kadir and Luis is grounded by two actors who aren’t afraid to shade in these characters. For Kadir, he still hasn’t recovered from the death of his brother, and his strained relationship with his mother (Cassandra Freeman) and her boyfriend (Hassan Johnson) leads him to fall in with a graffiti gang, OTL (Outside the Lines). Led by Skemes (Melvin Gregg), OTL gives Kadir the familial atmosphere he is desperately in need of while also channeling his artistic impulses by tagging various walls. 
But Skemes also pushes Kadir to experiment with drugs and robberies, manipulating him into believing that while the gang is his family, he also has to represent OTL, which means providing for them. One of those botched robberies introduces him to Luis, a lonely MTA worker who, instead of turning Kadir over to the police, invites him to talk over Cuban sandwiches. Harboring his own demons, including a drinking problem, the two nevertheless fall in together, as Kadir eventually moves into Luis’s place in a bid to escape his family and OTL.
Given the role of the wiser mentor, Guzmán takes a somewhat stock character and imbues him with complexity. He wants what is best for Kadir but knows that his relationship with the boy is fragile. He’s also prone to outbursts, and his drinking gets worse by the day. Yet, the scenes between Kadir and Luis — in addition to Coral Peña’s kind waitress Gloria — work best because they manage to narrow in on a type of specificity that the film’s plot never fully gets to. One believes that this is a story ‘by the Bronx’ whenever Luis, Kadir, and Gloria are discussing their lived experience of trying to survive the city and its rapid gentrification, but that feeling goes away anytime Skemes and the OTL gang show up to disrupt things. 
Further, the film’s final act feels rote in how  Kadir falls out with Luis, only to return to Skemes before realizing the divergent paths his life can take. This isn’t helped by a late-act voice-over that essentially lays bare the film’s themes without any sense of the nuance that came previously. But, even with these stumbles, Torres is a particularly adept visualist and storyteller, giving all these characters competing motivations, even if those motivations become a bit too schematic in the end. When we learn from Gloria’s boyfriend that Skemes was also a gifted artist who had both the cops and galleries knocking on his door, it paradoxically shades in an interesting characterization for Skemes but also feels a bit too neat in reflecting Kadir’s possible choices.
Even if the narrative feels too structured, Torres is nevertheless aided by Eric Branco’s grainy yet lush cinematography that simultaneously shows a city succumbing to blight while also remaining beautiful in stretches. It’s a juxtaposition that works well within the confines of the narrative and suggests a powerful pairing between the two collaborators. Even if “Story Ave” occasionally dips into a well-worn narrative, it nevertheless features two powerful performances and acts as a showcase for its first-time director. [B+]