Bosco (now streaming on Peacock), directed by Nicholas Manuel Pino and adapted from Quawntay “Bosco” Adams’ book Chasin’ Freedum, tells the true story of how Adams utilized the limited materials and opportunities at his disposal to make a high-line escape from the maximum security wing of a federal prison. Starring Aubrey Joseph (Cloak & Dagger) and Nikki Blonski (Hairspray), and featuring appearances by Tyrese Gibson, Vivica A. Fox, Thomas Jane, and Theo Rossi, Bosco ultimately connects back to the real life Quawntay Adams’ story as a kind of cautionary tale, but one inspired by the power of the human mind to overcome the worst deprivations.
The Gist: For Quawntay “Bosco” Adams (Joseph), solving puzzles was always an interest. Then again, so was running. We first meet him as a young boy in 1985 Compton. (Young Bosco is played by Camden Randall). He’s enamored of 1000-piece puzzles full of lions and other wild animals, but his father Tootie (Tyrese Gibson), an embittered drug dealer, says the real lions are out there in the streets. And after briefly meeting Vivica A. Fox as his mother Willa in the same flashback, we’re thrown forward in time to 2006, and Bosco’s entry into a federal supermax prison in Missouri. Third strike. No more running. “35 years for some fucking weed,” Bosco rues in voiceover.
“Welcome to my jail, son. I have one objective here, and that is to keep everybody safe and contained.” Emphasis on the latter. Captain Hunt (Thomas Jane) and his prison guard lackey Ramos (Theo Rossi) get off on demeaning the inmates at every turn, to the point of depravity. Bosco is locked into a cell with blood and feces smeared on the walls, and Hunt taunts him by withholding an ultrasound image of his unborn baby. Bosco’s only link with the outside world is through collect calls placed through the intercom in his cell, and with an assist from an inmate known as The Bull (John Lewis), he strikes up a telephone relationship with Tammy (Nikki Blonsky), a Missouri woman who placed a “lonely hearts” classified ad in the paper. Time spent in solitary confinement and just trying to stay mentally stable in the prison is alleviated somewhat by their phone conversations. “I can’t believe how unfair they’re treating you,” Tammy says. “It’s a gosh darn shame if you ask me.”
Bosco wants to meet his child when she’s still a child, not 35 years from now. And no one should live in a cage, deprived of all decency. Bosco knows there’s information everywhere, even in prison. He learns the cadence of Ramos and Hunt’s footsteps, learns where he can and cannot be seen, even in his cell. The greatest weakness in any security system, he says in voiceover, are human beings. And with his innate ability to solve puzzles, a few lifelines from the outside, and Tammy’s assistance, he devises a daring plan to seize his freedom.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of? Bosco makes a couple of direct references to the 1979 Clint Eastwood film Escape from Alcatraz, which remains one of the more memorable prison escape movies of all time. And Escape at Dannemora, a gripping limited series also based on the twisty true story of an unlikely prison escape, garnered numerous Emmy nominations.
Performance Worth Watching: Bosco is Aubrey Joseph’s film – he’s the title character, he’s the narrator; he’s the dramatic link to the real life Quawntay Adams. But of the strong, if only briefly seen supporting cast, John Lewis’s work as Bosco’s neighbor inmate The Bull stands out. We don’t get his entire backstory. But Lewis gives Bull a swagger that belies the smarter and more damaged man beneath the tough talk and prison tats. (Lewis also briefly crossed paths with Bosco co-star Theo Rossi in season six of Sons of Anarchy.)
Memorable Dialogue: “People don’t appreciate the freedom that floats on every breeze,” “I might be caged, but I ain’t runnin’ no more”: Some of the most powerful dialogue in Bosco arrives through narration, as Adams observes his situation with a detached air. It’s true he’s physically jailed. But his mind can still take him places.
Sex and Skin: None.
Our Take: Bosco is an often suffocating watch. Even a grindingly slow one. We’re IN that prison cell with him. But then again, that’s probably the point. The stark mood it establishes, the lack of contact with the outside world, but for flashbacks of when freedom was still his, helps us find a way into Quawntay “Bosco” Adams’ physical space, but more importantly his headspace. There are some interesting wrinkles of direction and editing, too that expand that seven-by-twelve supermax cell. When Bosco imagines how he’d overtake Ramos the evil prison guard and disable him with a taser, he immediately dismisses the notion in his voiceover, which throughout becomes a kind of bulwark against the brutality and awful conditions of his incarceration. In Bosco’s mind, we meet a curious young man with easy touches of humor and a cynicism that’s become hard bound. And once the film finds its way into the planning and execution of his escape, there’s a lot to root for, since we know what he’s been subjected to. When it comes right down to it, there is not enough of this. Bosco ends too quickly, with more than a few questions about how it all went down. But it leaves room for a postscript that returns the main character to reality, and shows us how the freedom he sought finally arrived at its own pace.
Our Call: Bosco can be a claustrophobic grind, but it is still a STREAM IT, because it references the canon of prison escape films and allows space for Aubrey Joseph to ably interpret and invite us into Quawntay Adams’ inner life.
Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.