User reviews

I hadn't read the book, and I found this often hard to follow. When I got home, I read the IMDB plot synopsis, which allowed me to check if I'd interpreted things right. If you're someone who doesn't like having to work hard to piece together a story, I recommend you read the synopsis before watching the film.

On the positive side, the acting is excellent. Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor created a wonderful character as the grandmother - her facial expressions convey so much. The overall theme - how those who are supposed to protect us will often abuse that power, and then crush anyone who points this out - remains an important one to this day. I saw parallels with the Irish institution depicted in Small Things Like These. It was particularly poignant seeing the confidence that Elwood had in the civil rights movement get comprehensively destroyed as he realised that the rights are worth nothing if powerful people ignore them.

The three things I disliked most were (a) the extent to which you had to infer what had happened - obviously, you don't always want everything spelled out in detail, but it was hard to fit the pieces together, especially as at times things moved very fast; (b) the "point of view" camera shots did not work for me - occasionally they led to a beautiful and unusual perspective on something, but a lot of the time I found the camera movement jarring. (c) I'm afraid that I (white British person) would have liked subtitles - some of the dialogue was hard to follow - and this, put together with the other challenging aspects of the film, just added to the frustration.

I know people who loved this film, and it got great reviews in some of the UK press, so I think for many people the experimental approach to storytelling and camera shots was exciting and refreshing. For me, it just was too much - especially for a film coming in at just under 2.5 hr. I was relieved when it ended!

This is by no means a bad film, but it is a frustrating one. Sure, we all appreciate a movie that tries to do something different-but let's not confuse "different" with "successful."

The film is shot in a POV style where the camera is meant to represent the character's perspective, which ends up being wildly distracting. Not only does this approach pull you out of the action, but there are moments where you're left wondering what the hell you're even looking at. For example, there are several shots of the back of someone's head. Who is seeing that? Are we supposed to believe the character can see the back of their own skull?

I shouldn't have to ask questions like that. And I wouldn't, if the film had drawn me in. But the overly gimmicky style makes that impossible. This could have been a very powerful movie-the subject matter certainly deserves it. However, the overly clever filmmaking drains it of any real impact.

The acting and writing just barely manage to save it from being a complete disaster, but you still leave the theater wanting so much more.

A harrowing tale of abuse and mistreatment of colored youths at a reform school. It is exclusively told from the subjective POV of the main character and a fellow intern he befriends at the school. While I appreciate the ambition behind this, it unfortunately and somewhat paradoxically distances me from the main character. Some early scenes felt a bit contrived and forced with this technique, the dialog never flowing in a natural way. Watched this at Stockholm Film Festival without subtitles was also a bit of a challenge since it was very difficult to make out the dialog in certain scenes. You could grasp the events, but details was lost on me. Despite these objections regarding the stylistic choice, the story was still somewhat gripping but overall, it could have been even more so using a more traditional narrative.

Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Nickel Boys, a harrowing tale of abuse at a reform school during the Jim Crow era, deserved a cinematic adaptation that captured its potent grief and unflinching brutality. Unfortunately, RaMell Ross's film adaptation falls tragically short, not due to its faithful rendering of the narrative, but because of a deeply misguided and ultimately crippling approach to cinematography that renders the story practically incomprehensible.

The film follows Elwood Curtis, a bright and idealistic young black man wrongly sentenced to the Nickel Academy, a supposed institution of learning that is, in reality, a breeding ground for sadism and racial violence. We witness the horrors through Elwood's eyes, alongside his more cynical companion, Turner. However, witnessing these horrors is a frustratingly difficult task, thanks to Ross's baffling stylistic choices.

Instead of establishing a sense of place and allowing the audience to breathe in the suffocating atmosphere of Nickel, the film throws us into a relentless barrage of close-ups. Faces fill the frame, disembodied and divorced from their surroundings, leaving us with no context for their expressions or the environment that informs them. This constant proximity might have been effective in creating intimacy if it wasn't paired with a dizzying array of first-person perspectives.

We're thrust into the shoes of various characters, often with no clear indication of who we're supposed to be inhabiting. The camera becomes an erratic, disorienting stand-in for the eyes of the boys, sometimes even inexplicably positioned to stare at the back of Elwood's head. This technique, presumably intended to immerse us in the characters' subjective experiences, achieves the opposite effect. It detaches us, leaving us scrambling to understand basic spatial relationships and the narrative flow.

The result is a chaotic, disorienting mess. Scenes that should be emotionally impactful are reduced to a jumble of fragmented images. Key moments of violence are obscured by the shaky, often illegible camerawork. The film's attempts at conveying the psychological toll of trauma are lost in the visual clutter. It's as if the filmmakers were so determined to avoid a conventional approach that they forgot the fundamental purpose of cinematography: to tell a story visually.

While the performances from the young cast are commendable, particularly Ethan Herisse as Elwood, their efforts are ultimately undermined by the film's impenetrable style. "The Nickel Boys" had the potential to be a powerful and necessary piece of cinema, but it is ultimately undone by its own cinematic excesses. Instead of illuminating Whitehead's devastating story, the film buries it under a mountain of ill-conceived visual choices, leaving the audience lost in the dark, struggling to see the tragedy unfolding before them. It's a film that tragically fails to understand that sometimes, less truly is more.

"Nickel Boys" is a strikingly assured and ambitious debut fiction-feature from director RaMell Ross. It is composed almost entirely of POV shots. This has been tried a hand-full of times before in film history, perhaps most famously in the '40s noir, "The Lady of the Lake", but never as intricately and effectively as it is here.

"Nickel Boys" is bi-perspectival. We experience the gazes of two different characters, Elwood and Turner, teenagers incarcerated in a Jim Crowe-era juvenile detention center that amounts to a borderline death-camp for its Black prisoners. I was struck by the similarities and differences between "Nickel Boys" and "Hunger", another overpowering work on life-in-detention. The older film is about the body to a visceral degree that few other movies have attempted and the result is a work of relentless objectivity. "Nickel Boys", by contrast, is about the effects of trauma and imprisonment on the mind and memory- a relentlessly subjective piece.

The tone is thus very different from that of most bleak prison dramas, at times almost affirmational. We're experiencing, literally seeing, the way Elwood and Turner view their conditions in ways that make their situation tolerable- largely by focusing on their friendship- each other's faces- and those of their loved ones. This is not to say that the film is artificially pleasant. One of the best scenes consists of a single long take of a conversation in a bar years after the events depicted in most of the film have taken place. It's a remarkably well staged and performed scene featuring brief but memorable work by actor Sam Malone as Percy, one of the detention center's survivors, uttering the horrors he witnessed in a tone that suggests that even years later he can barely cope with what he saw. Experiences like those inflicted on the characters perhaps cause more damage after the fact than during the actual experience when survival instinct takes over.

The bi-perspectival construction of the film also demonstrates the ways that experiences and memories are never fully constructed or belonging to any one individual. Elwood and Turner, for all of their differences, come to seem almost like one character. We start to forget, or care, about whose perspective we are viewing. These men are forging this part of their lives together- they are co-authors of each other's experience. In this sense, "Nickel Boys" is about themes larger than imprisonment and injustice. It's about the ways that time and memory enact experience, both making it palatable but in the process leaving defining scars. The film's final montage features images of cellular reality- our being recreating itself through creation and destruction even within a single lifetime.

"Nickel Boys" is not a perfect movie. Ross's previous work had been as a documentarian and the script he co-wrote with Joslyn Barnes and Colson Whitehead is characterized by some clunky, overly on-the-nose dialog. However, this makes the powerful performance of said dialog by stars Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, and especially Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as Elwood's grandmother, all the more impressive.

I respect this film much more than I enjoyed it. While the director really took a big swing here, this film is a tad overrated. I think that's for two reasons: the way in which this is shot, and the subject matter. While both certainly have merit, simply because a film is doing something innovative, doesn't necessarily mean the film itself is very good. While the film certainly is a real technical achievement, and the subject is touching, I wonder if shooting it in a traditional manner would've made this more palatable and improved the film overall.

If you go into this film without knowing what it's about, you'd never know it's based on a true story. There are scenes, particularly in the beginning, that don't really add up to much ultimately. For a film about such bleak subject matter, the film feels very dreamlike, fantastical, and over-stylized. Because of this, the film almost feels like a projection or rosy retrospection of the abusuve reform school, in lieu of a realistic portrayal of what that must have been like for the victims. Off of that point, it felt like the director was unsure what he wanted the film to be about: the horrors of the reform school or the power of friendship between the two central boys. Much of the abuse is implied or heard off-screen, so how trying and scary the environment must have been for the boys is never really fleshed out, it's mostly implicit. And while the friendship between the boys is shown, how they went from being bunkmates to being best friends isn't necessarily limned or shown for viewers. The story is quite jumpy, at times includes arbitrary scenes, and thus the plot can feel confusing.

How nice the film looked took away from how impactful it could've actually been. The cinematography is certainly beautiful to look at, but the use of the first-person shots were unnecessary and don't really add much to the story. There are many scenes of characters talking to one another and because the film is in first-person POV, you have the actors talking straight into the camera; it more often than not feels awkward, stilted, and contrived, almost reminiscent of a video game or hologram. It just felt bizarre much of the time.

This easily could've been told in a traditional, third-person way and the film would've been much better than it is. The first-person gimmick also sullies the experience of understanding just how bad things are for the characters because we literally only see two perspectives, not an objective view or the totality of the mistreatment. And the pacing much of the time is unfortunately mediocre. A good half hour could've been trimmed from this film.

The performances are good though, and really carry the film. Aujanue Ellis-Taylor gives a great performance, portraying a grandmother trying to come to grips with a deeply unsettling situation she finds her grandson in. The acting of the two leads is also quite good.

Overall, it's beautiful to look at with some strong acting, and I appreciate the big swing that was taken here by the director, but the story could've been told and edited better than it was.

RaMell Ross transforms Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer-winning novel into an immersive cinematic experience that confronts systemic racism with unflinching honesty and artistic brilliance.

RaMell Ross's Nickel Boys is not a film that watches passively. It demands engagement, understanding, and empathy from its audience, much like the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Colson Whitehead on which it is based. Through its daring visuals and emotionally charged storytelling, Nickel Boys immerses viewers in the horrors of the fictional Nickel Academy, a reform school in 1960s Florida modeled after the real-life Dozier School for Boys.

The film follows Elwood (Ethan Herisse) and Turner (Brandon Wilson), two young Black men navigating the systemic abuse, violence, and dehumanization at Nickel Academy. Ross opts for an intimate, first-person cinematic technique with the help of director of photography Jomo Fray, ensuring the audience doesn't just watch the story but experiences it through the eyes of its protagonists. From the stolen car that seals Elwood's fate to the mirrored ceiling reflecting fleeting moments of connection, the cinematography is both haunting and poetic.

Ross doesn't shy away from discomfort. Instead, he leans into it, capturing moments of injustice with brutal authenticity. One of the film's most harrowing sequences involves a Nickel supervisor (Hamish Linklater) doling out punishment. The violence occurs off-screen, but the chilling sound of the strap and the visceral reactions of the boys leave an indelible mark. The film also uses historical references, like cutting in scenes from 1958's The Defiant Ones, to deepen the emotional resonance of Elwood and Turner's attempted prison break.

The performances are as captivating as the story. Herisse brings a quiet determination to Elwood, while Wilson's Turner is a revelation, showcasing a raw vulnerability that makes his arc unforgettable. Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor delivers a heartbreaking turn as Elwood's grandmother, Hattie, and Fred Hechinger exudes sinister menace as a trustee of the academy. In flash-forwards, Daveed Diggs portrays one of the survivors grappling with the haunting legacy of Nickel, a reminder that systemic racism's scars endure far beyond the immediate trauma.

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Ross masterfully balances artistry and substance, using his background as a photographer and documentarian (Hale County This Morning, This Evening) to craft a narrative that feels both tactile and transcendent. The visuals are stunning-orange trees swaying in the breeze, civil rights protests flickering on storefront TVs-but they never overshadow the film's thematic weight. The film dares to ask: How do you bear witness to atrocities while maintaining hope for a better future?

Ross's unique approach to storytelling is complemented by an equally daring narrative structure. The film's immersive technique places the audience directly into the emotional and physical landscapes of its characters. By shifting perspectives between Elwood and Turner, the audience is given a multi-faceted view of life at Nickel Academy-its suffocating oppression and fleeting moments of resilience. These shifting perspectives create a layered narrative that resonates on both personal and societal levels.

Some may find Ross's immersive, collage-like approach challenging, but it's precisely this audacity that makes Nickel Boys a must-watch. It's not just a film about the past but a searing indictment of a present still shaped by institutional racism in new and disturbing forms. The juxtaposition of Elwood's unyielding hope with Turner's hardened pragmatism paints a poignant picture of the different ways individuals navigate systemic oppression. This duality adds emotional depth to the story, making it both heart-wrenching and thought-provoking.

Ross also introduces moments of unexpected beauty amidst the darkness. The tactile warmth of a breeze on an orange tree, the quiet solidarity of shared meals, and the fleeting joy of stolen moments all serve as reminders of the humanity that persists even in the face of unimaginable cruelty. These moments are not mere embellishments but integral parts of the narrative, highlighting the resilience of the human spirit.

The film's climax, centered around Elwood and Turner's daring escape, is a masterclass in tension and emotional weight. The use of intercut scenes from The Defiant Ones adds a layer of meta-commentary on the history of cinematic depictions of race and resistance. The pursuit by a white trustee, portrayed with chilling menace by Fred Hechinger, serves as a stark reminder of the pervasive and relentless nature of systemic racism.

Nickel Boys is more than a movie-it's a cry for justice, a call to action, and a work of art that demands to be felt as much as seen. RaMell Ross's fearless storytelling, coupled with extraordinary performances, ensures this adaptation is both unforgettable and necessary. It challenges us to confront our shared history while offering glimmers of hope that change, however incremental, is possible.

Reviewed At Opening Night of the 62nd New York Film Festival at Alice Tully Hall on September 27, 2024.

Despite all the issues I ended up having with it, I do admired Nickel Boys for delivering a unique experience that doesn't feel like something I've seen in any other movie. It's a very stylistic movie that attempts to tell an important story in an interesting way but unfortunately the story telling method didn't work for me overall. I very much not a fan of POV shots in movies since I find them so distracting and unnatural so filming an entire movie in that way was something I found to be extremely frustrating. It just kept me at a distance from these characters since I'm not seeing how they react during pivotal scenes. Instead of trying to get immersed in the experience I found myself more focused on the camera work in all the wrong ways. It's a very harrowing tale and one that understands the things we don't see on screen are all the more impactful. With it being such a disturbing story a vision that I could've actually gotten on board with would've done so much to get me wrapped up in this experience. But as it is I just found it to be a bit of a miserable watch that dragged unbelievably for me. I do admire the risks that this movie takes and more than that I see what RaMell Ross was going for. It's beautifully acted and did make me feel some genuine emotions while watching it but the main thing I felt when all is said and done is frustration.

The story this movie tells is fantastic and heart wrenching. The acting is superb. At times the director makes brilliant choices. Ok done with the good stuff.

What a train wreck. Seriously. I think this director has a great future, but he threw everything into this film but the kitchen sink. I hated the hand held shaky cam stuff. Why did he do that? It tended to be more shaky early in the film so it kind of set me off early and the story and acting had to win me back. The way POV was utilized throughout was very distracting. We are seeing everything unfold through the character on the screens eyes. At times it is really confusing. The camera is the character. No normal film type interactions at all. Sure if works from time to time, but overall it is annoying. The set up to when Elwood gets in trouble is very long and not well constructed. I have not read the novel but I would guess it has a section about the (limited?) legal process that occurs. It would have been a nice touch. Loved some of the odd montages. Hated others. I still gave it a 7., for the gripping story this film tells, but man ,what a weird film.

RaMell Ross might be a big noise in the world of commercial photography but here he proves that using the medium of the "moving picture" is something that is beyond him. He should have actually learnt some lessons from the iconic film he references in this film - Stanley Kramer's "The Defiant Ones" - which shows that you don't need filmic trickery to tell a story of racial prejudice in the USA's Deep South. Is there any point to telling the same scene from the point of view of the two participants in it? Am I the only one who finds this disruptive to the narrative's drive? The one salient point I found from watching this film was that heinous crimes were not just enacted by whites on blacks but equally evil by blacks on blacks. Let's hope that the next picture Ross makes is a bit more coherent and not just a sequence of still pictures.

Greetings again from the darkness. I don't recall a more unusual opening seven or eight minutes for a film (even including Terrence Malick). Slightly disorienting fragments of scenes from odd angles are made more obscure through nearly indistinguishable dialogue. The surreal images form a dreamlike montage of a playground, a sale on color TV's, Martin Luther King's speech, and more. A few more minutes pass before we get an actual look at Elwood, whose story we are about to follow.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning 2019 novel by Colson Whitehead is adapted for the screen by writer-director RaMell Ross and co-writer Joslyn Barnes. Though the story and characters are a work of fiction, the Nickel Academy is based on the Dozier School, a Florida panhandle-based reform school that operated for 111 years prior to unmarked graves being discovered.

Elwood (Ethan Herisse) is an intelligent high schooler being raised by his wise and hardworking grandmother Hattie (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, KING RICHARD, 2021). His teacher is so convinced of Ethan's potential that he guides him towards a local college that accepts black students and offers scholarships. It doesn't take us long to gain an affinity for Elwood and realize he has a promising future. Well, that's right up to the moment he mindlessly accepts a ride in a stolen car. The police treat him as an accomplice, and poof, he's in a patrol car headed to reform school. The contrast between the environments for white kids at Nickel Academy versus black kids is startling.

Elwood and Turner (Brandon Wilson, THE WAY BACK, 2020) form an unlikely friendship. Turner, who has no family, is from Houston and has a big city viewpoint of societal racism compared to Elwood's mostly hopeful nature. Two sides of a coin one might say. Director Ross references the classic film THE DEFIANT ONES a few times - noting the differences between the Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis characters. Another creative choice from Ross is the alternating timeframes as the story is told. Of course, there is young Elwood (Ethan Cole Sharp) and reform school Elwood (Herisse), and we find ourselves intrigued by 'adult' Elwood (Daveed Diggs). Ross shows mostly the back of his head as he starts his own business - Ace Moving Company - and works through relationship issues.

Still, most of the film's story occurs while Elwood and Turner negotiate each day through the abuse and mistreatment ... and fear of the sweatbox. It's through their eyes that we 'see' what they say. This distinctive camera work from cinematographer Jomo Fray would likely be distracting in most films, but here, it works to plop us right into an environment we'd likely never experience on our own. Supporting work comes from Hamish Linklater as the home's director and Fred Hechinger as a foreman who cuts the boys some slack. It's Linklater's character who methodically lays out the steps for the boys to achieve release. It's only with time that they discover these steps are nothing but a pipe dream.

It's a long movie with some heartbreaking moments. It's also one that frequent movie goers will recognize as a true work of art. As adult Elwood follows the excavation of the Nickel Academy site, the impact of a place that laid the foundation of animosity becomes quite clear. There are lessons to be learned from history, if only we take heed.

I enjoyed the artistic stylings of the cinematography. They were as much a part of the story as the plot and characters.

This was hard to watch mostly becausse of the unfortunate truths it portrayed.

Injustice is never an easy thing to swallow. At least for me.

This movie is definitely worth watching if only to inform yourself about the darkness of our past.

But at a 2:20 runtime, it felt somewhat tedious.

I get that the long runtime was meant to correspond to the long suffering of african americans and the lengthy civil rights struggle, but ultimately, it's message suffered for it.

Its poignant story might've been better served as quick, aggressive and brutal. Rather than as the slow and painstaking story it told.

I left the cinema early because I found the film's storytelling irritating. The director used a first-person perspective (subjective camera), placing the viewer directly in the main character's role. As a result, other characters spoke directly to me, and the main character himself was visible only once, in a photo booth scene with his girlfriend. I guess this was supposed to make it easier for the viewer to identify with the character. But it had the opposite effect on me. I was simply annoyed by this overly artificial form of presentation.

The story had great potential, but the director's first-person approach ruined it for me. This method might have worked in a short film, but after about 15 minutes, I've had enough.

One of the most creative, different films i've seen. I think there is a bit of a conflicted stir amongst audiences in how this story was executed. Some people seem to love it, some people seem to hate it. If you'll notice, nobody has anythiing negative to say about the story and source material... It's because its deeply moving and shocking, for those who don't know the story already.

The execution is strikingly different. With such unconventional ways, it is sure to divide audiences. This should not stop you from seeing this film, the story is important enough to be told. And you may end up loving its creative style, i know i did.

Director RaMell Ross makes his debut with his first film after his three great documentaries. This time he adapts Colson Whitehead's fantastic book that won him his second Pulitzer Prize for this raw story based on real events.

A daring staging.

There are decisions that mark when it comes to rewarding a job or not, and that is the case that brings us to the staging that RaMell Ross decides and this subjective vision that he applies to his two main characters. In a certain way it is a decision that I do value quite a lot for a director who wants to make a new impression in his debut on the big screen. If I agree completely with that, well no, because it greatly limits being able to enter in a better way into a story as powerful as what he has in his hands. For those film lovers who are looking for new sensations, this is a bet that will be very popular, and this is confirmed by its nomination for best film at the next Oscars. However, for a more traditional viewer it will be an experience that they will not be able to fully enjoy, because it is true that the film and its script are difficult to follow.

Boldness does not come sustained to the end.

While the film is quite captivating in its first hour, when the moment of explosion arrives, this same audacity at the beginning prevents us from enjoying more intensely its final outcome, which deserved a much less revolutionary intention to understand the great final climax that it has on its shoulders. In any case, the direction is neat and calculated, but it does not end up being a satisfactory blow for everyone.

His story is so powerful, it makes up for everything.

Although it is not visually perfect, it is a deep, sad and meaningful story that compensates for certain decisions when we begin to understand the entire path that this pair of friends travel within the hell that their environment represents. Its script supports certain monologues and scenes that captivate and connect with the viewer who decides to give this proposal by RaMell Ross a chance until the end . It is also helped by a good cast that manages to make this visual proposal by its director emotionally bearable.

Conclusion.

Ultimately, we are faced with a film that has the appeal to conquer a large part of the public, with a risky visual proposal imprinted by a director who seeks to give his own touch to a moving and heartbreaking story that may have been much more powerful with other decisions in tow, but it is still an assumption. The reality is that Nickel Boys has its own merits to validate its place among the best of 2024, it may not be for all viewers, but, nevertheless, it is worth giving it a chance to have your own impression of its final result.

Nickel Boys is one of the most haunting and powerful movies I've seen in years. It takes Colson Whitehead's incredible novel and turns it into a bold, experimental film that demands your full attention. RaMell Ross's direction is raw and unflinching, jumping between fractured memories and gut-wrenching reality to tell the story of Elwood and Turner, two Black boys trapped in a horrific reform school during the Jim Crow era.

What really hit me was how much this story feels relevant today. With the rise of fascist rhetoric and modern policies rolling back civil rights, it's a stark reminder of how fragile progress can be. The systemic abuse and cruelty at the Nickel Academy aren't just relics of the past-they reflect ongoing struggles in the U. S. today, especially as political leaders continue to undermine protections for marginalized groups.

The film isn't an easy watch, but it's stunningly made, with incredible performances from Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson. The cinematography and sound design are just as emotional as the story, pulling you into the boys' trauma and resilience. It's not just a movie-it's a wake-up call.

I went into this film knowing nothing about the plot. I didn't even know it was based on a Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel. When films are as acclaimed as this one, I like going in with zero knowledge if possible.

As someone who hadn't read the book, I found the movie's handling of the plot to be very confusing. It was difficult to follow the narrative because of the aggressively fragmented technique and the camera work, which was usually POV and sometimes duplicative. The ending, in particular, made little sense to this uninitiated viewer. I entertained several theories about exactly what happened during those crucial 60 seconds or so and had to resort to the Internet when I got home to learn the implication of what I'd just seen. Maybe engendering that level of confusion was the filmmaker's intention...but for me it was problematic.

Beyond feeling confused, I was also not so taken with what I'll call the film's going-for-broke artsiness. There were frequent intrusions of extraneous footage, some historical...some "atmospheric"... some indecipherable. Ordinary activities like picking oranges were heavily labored, as if just showing simple actions in a straightforward manner was somehow unseemly.

Basically I'd say the film is attempting to give the viewer as much of a taste of the direct experience as it was lived by the characters as is possible in a movie. It's kind of an immersion technique, but I didn't feel it was overly successful. Certainly I felt very uncomfortable watching the brutality and racism highlighted here, but I'm not sure the way the brutality and racism were actually handled in terms of the story fragmentation and camera work strengthened the point the film was trying to make or diluted that point.

In sum, this is a highly ambitious, thought- (and gut-) provoking film that did not reach the heights to which it aspired. I recommend it highly for its subject matter but not so much for its technique.

I think I've already seen the best movie of 2025 in going to watch Nickel Boys. I had a rough idea of what this was about but at the same time, was completely and utterly unprepared for how well this production has been put together. The craft and care that has been taken by RaMell Ross is evident from the off as we're ushered into a dreamy world of distorted perspectives and points of view that you don't usually see in a movie about the brutality of incarceration. I've not read the book by Colson Whitehead on which this is based but I fully intend to chase it down and give it a go now.

The two lead performances from Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson are just pitched just right and I have to praise Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor for the warmth and depth she gives to her role as Ellwood's grandmother. The story unfolds in a dizzying way that isn't always clear but you are required to think and imagine as part of your viewing experience, this is a movie for people who want to be challenged and not spoon fed with the same old same old. As well as great camera work, the score and soundtrack are perfectly matched to the visuals and as a package, it's been put together seamlessly and lovingly.

The last time I went to the cinema and the film ended to a stunned silence due to the power of what we'd just witnessed was The Zone Of Interest, another literary adaptation. There aren't too many movies that bring books to life like this, so get along and fill your boots and your mind.

It's an African American historical drama set from 1962 to 1967 and 1988 in Tallahassee and Marianna, Florida, and New York City in 1988. It primarily follows Elwood Curtis (Ethan Cole/Ethan Herisse/Daveed Diggs), a gifted teenage African American living with his grandmother, Hattie (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor). He's inspired by his teacher, Mr. Hill (Jimmie Falls), engaged in the early Civil Rights movement, and looks forward to college. However, he accepts a ride in a stolen car and is sent to the infamous Nickel Academy reform school, a segregated facility.

At Nickel, Elwood becomes good friends with Turner (Brandon Wilson), an African American of similar age who has been at Nickel for some time and teaches Elwood the ropes. The film follows events at Nickel, where brutality and misconduct by white staff are routine. The 1988 scenes show Elwood trying to track and document the illegal activity at the now-closed Nickel Academy.

"Nickel Boys" fairly reflects Colson Whitehead's novel but does so through a deliberate art movie approach. The perspective is usually through the eyes of either Elwood or Turner, which makes for some awkward, in my view, camera work. Director Ross also uses period film footage from the 1960s related both to Civil Rights and the space program. For me, Ross's creative urges reduced the film's potential impact. I like my movies more straight-forward. Your results may differ.

I'm still unsure about my thoughts on the ending, what is revealed specifically after this tumultuous climax and the fact that this moment comes following a slightly stupefying dramatic beat (maybe I'm overthinking it, but I seriously doubt those guys would've stopped chasing after the other guy in that moment). Lots of shots of Apollo 8 I'm also pondering and it's symbolism of a kind I'm trying to figure out.

That last part may be... good, actually, necessary even. I don't need everything to make sense on a first go if something feels extraordinary, and the POV choice from Ross and cinematographer Jomo Frey (just give him the Oscar, easiest choice imaginable) not only worked for me, it took the story into a deeper, more enthralling dimension than if it were told more conventionally (or, of course, more linearly; this latter part is my own mild criticism, but not enough to mark it down from being one of the great films of 2024).

How we see our world and that view is challenger and darkens (how Elwood even gets sent to the reform school in the first place and what the charge was; how we perhaps take what we are seeing at a given point in history and may take it for granted; whether it's the glances of a girl we like or Martin Luther King being on TV (quite the timing for me to see this on MLK Day but I digress); how we react to something that we may (no definitely) become disillusioned to right quick; how the awareness of this place is framed around morality - everyone is complicit because no one says anything and turns an eye and ear, and how abuse proliferates there is an example of how it proliferates anywhere (as Turner says) there's another Nickel school.

Those are the subjects here as much as it is moving story of friendship that is under the most harrowing and saddening circumstances, and about how perhaps the only way to live after something like that is by disconnecting from the point of view that once was there (my reading of the change in future tense scenes). Herisse as Elwood and Wilson as Turner are superb not necessarily for any big moment or acting choice but for how easily they have as a connection as performers, and since this is a prison story as much as it is a story of a "school," Robbins and Freeman in Shawshank comes to mind as a comparison not of specifics but just how we connect with the both of them. And any minute Ellis-Taylor is on screen is so special especially because of the bond she and Elwood have early on that is severed and hard to put back together again.

Nickel Boys may not work for some who might prefer a more traditionally told narrative, but there is something about the perspective that almost works philosophically as well as poetically as a kind of Rebellion against what we expect - and that also serves the story since these characters' bodies are captive but their minds and hearts are not. They can imagine something better for themselves, and Elwood is going for that "5th" way out that may spell his doom in another way (now that I'm sitting here writing it it actually is the less hopeful version of Andy in Shawshank, without giving away anything about the plot).

I'm almost reminded of that Orson Welles quote where he said "A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet." This is a camera that is showing us what is literally in the eyes and in seeing the world around us - or sometimes for protection and for self preservation, not seeing and only hearing - and since we have two perspectives there is variety in how we are seeing the world and the possibility of freedom vs total destruction. For as much as that final reveal is still a little too melodramatic given how everything else is more natural feeling, this is exceptional work as an experiment and as the kind of dramatic work that should touch anyone with an open heart.

There are two really engaging performances on offer here as Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson deliver a powerful indictment of a Florida school for boys. Induced there with promises of innovative educational practices and no exorbitant fees, these lads arrive to discover that what they are attending is little better than a prison. Governed by brutality, starvation and violence, the boys have to conform to the demands of their boss "Spencer" (Hamish Linklater) or else life won't be for the living. It's worth pointing out that this isn't just a school for black kids, all shapes and sizes are used and abused here and even if the authorities do decide to make a rudimentary visit, nobody ever dares to step out of line. It's told using a combination of timelines, so there's not so much actual jeopardy for the two characters, but what we do see is just how each struggled to come to terms with their predicament in different ways, yet always managing to provide support for the other. As we build to the conclusion, the true extent of the horrors inflicted on these students becomes more appreciable and the production starts to mingle the drama with real-life photography, statistics and more abstract imagery that proves intangibly effective at illustrating just how messed up people could be after a childhood/youth spent in fear. It takes it's time which at times can prove frustrating, but in the end I reckon RaMell Ross manages to pick his way through this emotional minefield carefully and poignantly and it's a tough, but worthwhile, watch.

60s-based civil-rights drama "Nickel Boys" has noble intent, but the heavy-handed art-house approach (including first-person POV shooting) of writer / director RaMell Ross (with his second movie) renders it a LONG (2hrs 20mins), frustrating, painful watch. Good African-American teen Ethan Herisse is unfairly incarcerated in the Nickel Academy reform school (with the likes of Brandon Wilson & Luke Tennie, under staff like Hamish Linklater & Fred Hechinger) where he witnesses corruption & abuse. Ross' huge imbalance of style over substance makes almost all the performances appear poor however, and dilutes the film's message. It is a mess, which is a shame.

My wife and I watched the masterpiece Nickel Boys (2024) in theaters this evening. The storyline follows the true story of a young man who is wrongfully accused of stealing a car and sent to a reform school where young Black men are subjected to brutal discipline, tortured, and routinely murdered.

This film is directed by RaMell Ross (Hale County This Morning, This Evening) and stars Ethan Herisse (The American Society of Magical Negros), Brandon Wilson (The Way Back), and Aunjanue Ellis (Ray).

Nickel Boys feels like one of the most unique and creative documentaries I've ever seen. It's artistically shot, with smart and innovative visuals. The storyline is absolutely compelling, mind-boggling, and devastatingly sad. The acting is phenomenal, with characters perfectly portrayed and easy to root for. The circumstances are unpredictable, and the storyline and subplots are masterfully crafted. The ending is both amazing and profoundly heartbreaking.

In conclusion, Nickel Boys is a perfect blend of creative cinematography and elite storytelling. I would score this a 10/10 and strongly recommend it.