If there's one thing that Bosco does that's really worth admiring, it's that it works around its lower budget much for effectively than many other films its size. It would be easy to make a prison drama—set mostly between bare walls and corridors—look cheap, but this one clearly puts in the effort to communicate how its protagonist views his claustrophobic surroundings, instead of just aiming for bland realism. That said, the story Bosco tells unfortunately doesn't display the same tightness and elegance. The film tries to articulate itself in a more poetic way but it just ends up being too clean, too measured versus the reality of prison life. And whichever supporting characters pop up are far too underdeveloped to complete the world being presented to us.

Despite the film's tonal imbalance, lead actor Aubrey Joseph hits every beat required of him without breaking a sweat. He never overcooks his responses to things, and he manages to do that tricky thing of seeming both young and aged at the same time. Prison can put someone in a sort of limbo—it's a traumatic experience that's all but located within a vacuum from the outside world. By the end of the film, it almost becomes hard to tell what age Joseph's character is supposed to be, which feels like a clever, deliberate choice more than anything.