Jamal doesn’t say much, in fact he never utters a word, but actions do speak louder than words; less so his actions than those of his so-called role models. Quite simply, Jamal is a child walking the streets of an adult world. He is not without purpose, however, as he sets forth on a journey to ‘score a smoke’ for his only friend, Frank, a 40-something homeless veteran. What he discovers in the process goes beyond what any child should at the young age of 10. As Jamal walks the streets of the “sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll” culture of NYC, his quest becomes more of a personal journey for salvation and redemption as he tries his hardest to find good in the world, even if his heroin-addicted mother, his weed-smoking cousin, and drug-dealing pedophile of a father-figure, all fall into their own selfish desires and neglect to show Jamal a better life. With no mentor greater than his homeless friend, Frank, Jamal tragically falls to the whims of the corrupt world he knows only as NYC. As one of the film’s characters, a young guitarist, belts out on the subway train: “This poem has no home to roam…these words just are.” So is Jamal, a young and fragile mind subjected to an X-Rated education.