Boxcutter is one of those all-in-one-day, walk-and-talk movies for which I am a complete sucker. But instead of a glamorous city like Vienna (Before Sunrise) or Tuscany (Certified Copy), the film takes us all over the unforgiving streets of Toronto and the surrounding suburbs. There's no natural beauty here. In some places, there aren't even sidewalks. This is hardly a love letter to Canada's largest city. That gives it a real sense of place, and a hard edge that makes up for some of its clichés.
Ashton James plays Rome, an aspiring rapper who spends his days at a dead-end warehouse job. When his co-worker promises an intro to a wildly successful musician (Rich Kidd) at a party that night, he ditches all his responsibilities, getting laser-focused on this local legend hearing his demos. Unfortunately, when he arrives home, his apartment in the middle of being robbed. The thieves make off with his laptop and recording equipment, and thus begins a mad dash to different neighborhoods to get his tracks from various producers.
Accompanying Rome on this journey is his friend's sister Jenaya (Zoe Lewis), an artist herself. Their conversations range from romance to artistic integrity to the struggles of surviving in a world where rent keeps going up but salaries don't. If all this sounds similar to 2023's Rye Lane, that's because it is. While it doesn't have that film's visual flair, it does have a lot of raw emotion and a deep knowledge of the 905's music scene, with lots of smaller parts filled out by local performers.
The film's third act has a lot of hard lessons for Rome, who for all his flaws has become an endearing character. The shame, betrayal, and heartache he faces lands hard. But the movie isn't all grim reality or absurd wish fulfillment. It finds a good balance between those extremes, and between drama and comedy.
Though it's not always pretty, you'll want to come along for the journey Boxcutter takes you on.
