Movie Review: Nickel Boys
A movie like Nickel Boys is hard to write about because I can’t think of any movie I have seen before that is anything it. It is a singular vision from director RaMell Ross and one of the great achievements of 2024.
Adapted from Colson Whitehead’s book of the same title, Nickel Boys takes place in 1962 Jim Crow-era Florida where Elwood Curtis (Ethan Herisse) appears destined for great things. Having done great in school, he receives a tuition-free learning program at an HBCU, but while hitchhiking to campus gets picked up by a man in a stolen car. The police catch the man and assume Elwood is his accomplice and send him to Nickel Academy, a hellish reform school where races are segregated, Black kids are living in shambles, and some of the kids are being sexually abused.
While Elwood’s grandmother (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) tries to fight his conviction, Elwood befriends Turner (Brandon Wilson) despite the two having different points of view on the world, with Elwood being more optimistic and hopeful and Elwood being cynical and expecting the worse out of society. Their friendship grows and they try and navigate through the harsh nature of Nickel Academy.
This is only RaMell Ross’s second feature film, following the Oscar-nominated documentary Hale County This Morning, This Evening, and his first foray into narrative film and it is arguably the most impressive directorial effort of the decade. Ross made a film that is shot entirely through first-person point of view between Elwood and Turner, switching back and forth between the two of them so we see the world as they see it. Ross and cinematographer Jomo Fray show us this world through Black eyes, and it is as harrowing and moving an experience as I have ever had in a movie. It’s a creative, powerful move that effectively conveys the story of two Black kids trying to make it out of a terrible circumstance. A lot of the shots are long, single-takes that are challenging for the viewer and the performers, but the actors, all of whom are spectacular, are up to the task, which makes for a rich, unforgettable film-watching experience.
The film is also structured in a non-linear format, as there will be scenes where we jump forward in time to a grown-up Elwood (Daveed Diggs), who is looking up the history of Nickel Academy and similar schools to unearth truths that have been hidden. In these scenes the camera is shooting the back of Diggs and no longer in Elwood’s point of view, which adds a new layer of sadness to the film by showing us the profound effect Nickel had on Elwood while also showing how Black history can be erased.
While the subject matter of the film is heavy and features several tough scenes and themes of racism, injustice, and the disappearance of history, Nickel Boys is a beautiful story about hope and endurance. The two boys could not be more different when they first meet, with Elwood seeing the brighter side of what is happening to Black people at this time and their future while Turner has had enough with society and we see the two of them grow together and learn to lean on each other during the hard times at Nickel. There is a scene where Elwood’s grandmother is denied entry to see Elwood and runs into Turner and begs him for a hug. Turner accepts and, thanks to Ross’s revelatory filmmaking choice, you feel the love and warmth from the grandmother’s hug, and you feel Turner get softer the longer the hug goes. It’s moments like these that show that even during the worst of times, a small act of kindness and love can give anyone a little hope.
I haven’t stopped thinking about Nickel Boys since I first saw it. It’s cinematic poetry and a visionary piece of filmmaking from Ross. He’s a major filmmaker and Nickel Boys is a major, masterful movie.
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