Locarno: “Bruton” is Another Showcase of Theo Rossi’s Greatness
How many times does truth need to be stranger than fiction for us to finally believe reality is far beyond what we can create in our minds? Vincent Grashaw has made a career of telling stories from the fringes. Last year, his film Bang Bang centered on a once-famous boxer who is forced to discover what life is like when the rattle of the ring is no more. While the character in the film may not have been a real title boxer, there’s a post-script that shows the reality Grashaw always comes back to. His latest, Bruton, which is playing as part of the 2026 Locarno Film Festival, is no different.
Florida is known for having its fair share of odd stories, but there has always been a sense of melancholy in the state that few films are able to capture. For all its sunshine, escapism, and warm weather, Florida has something dark hiding underneath and Bryan Bruton’s story is one example of it. In Grashaw’s Bruton, Bryan is played by Theo Rossi, one of the most versatile, chameleonlike performers working now. Mere months ago at SXSW, you could catch him in The Saviorsas a nervous immigrant neighbor, but now he’s Bryan Bruton, a man who had the Florida prison system wrapped around his little finger.
Bryan lives in Jacksonville during the early 2000s and makes money selling drugs. While an arrest is on the horizon, it won’t be for that. Even though Bryan’s making good money, he wants to get into a business that’s legitimate and will help him care for his wife (Aya Cash) and daughter (Kayden Brenna Tokarski). He’s on that path, but an accidental hit-and-run causes him to be sentenced to ten years in prison. Throughout that time, Bryan would do what he does best: game the system.
Courtesy of Locarno
Like Grashaw’s other main characters, Bryan is not one thing. He’s not just a hustler or a drug dealer or a convicted criminal. He’s also a father who deeply loves his daughter and someone who brazenly cheats on his wife. All these versions of Bryan are on display in Bruton’s opening montage. Not only does it capture the style of a time and a place, it also shows Bryan’s ability to morph into different versions of himself, depending on the situation he’s in. The real essence of Bryan can be seen in the quieter moments of the movie, when the reality of life behind bars gets to him and he’s left with nothing but his thoughts.
Bruton is not simply a stranger-than-fiction heist/hustler movie, although it does provide more than its fair share of tall tales. Who could have guessed that Bryan would be running a massively successful cell phone enterprise as he prepares for a prison break? The heart is Bryan and his love for his daughter. At first, Bryan seems to enjoy finding ways to beat the system that has imprisoned him, but something snaps and makes him refocus his energy on his daughter. Tokarski, who plays Bryan’s daughter, has a heartbreaking line as she fights to be allowed to visit her father in prison: “I’m starting to forget what he looks like.”
Even with all the weight of the broken incarceration system, Bruton makes Bryan’s style an important component of the film. It shows the charisma that was both part of his downfall and what helped keep him alive. The film slips in and out of a VHS look and a more glossy one, and there’s a pace to the editing that creates the feeling of a crime thriller. It’s because of Rossi that even when the film leans into the madcap madness, Bryan is firmly rooted on planet Earth. Bruton acts as both a character study and a succinct exploration of the reality of the Florida prison system. It offers no judgment, just the quiet observation Grashaw does best.
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