Nickel Boys (2024, dir. RaMell Ross)

by | Jan 3, 2025

Certificate: 12A

Running Time: 140 mins

UK Distributor: Curzon

UK Release Date: 3 January 2024

WHO’S IN NICKEL BOYS?

Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Hamish Linklater, Fred Hechinger, Daveed Diggs, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Ethan Cole Sharp, Jimmie Fails

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

RaMell Ross (director, writer), Joslyn Barnes (writer, producer), Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner and David Levine (producers), Scott Alario and Alex Somers (composers), Jomo Fray (cinematographer), Nicholas Monsour (editor)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

In 60s Florida, two young boys (Herisse and Wilson) are sent to an abusive reform school…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON NICKEL BOYS?

[This is a slightly re-edited version of our review for Nickel Boys from its showing at the BFI London Film Festival]

In a day and age where it is more vital than ever to understand what it is to live as a Black person in a deeply prejudiced society, writer-director RaMell Ross’s Nickel Boys goes the extra step and literally shows life through their eyes.

Its first-person perspective is a gimmick previously seen largely in action films like Hardcore Henry and Doom, but those were done more to replicate the experience of playing an FPS game on the big screen, whereas here it’s a vital and quite compelling way to place viewers firmly in the shoes of what it is to be subjected to some truly shameful acts of humanity. As a unique approach to its timely themes, it is certainly powerful in its concept and overall ideas, though as a mere gimmick there are parts of the execution that leave a bit to be desired.

Set in 1960s Florida, we begin seeing things from the point of view of Elwood (Ethan Herisse), a young Black student with a promising academic future, until he mistakenly accepts a lift from a man driving a stolen car, for which he is arrested and sentenced to attend Nickel Academy, a reform school for young offenders. The school practises strict segregation, with the Black students living and studying in far less hospitable environments than their white counterparts, and worse are subjected to horrific abuse by the corrupt faculty. Elwood eventually meets and befriends Turner (Brandon Wilson), a fellow student whose perspective we also switch to at regular intervals, and the two of them rely on each other to survive their time together at Nickel, which becomes increasingly dangerous for both young men.

Ross, in adapting the Pulitzer-winning novel by Colson Whitehead, experiences both the benefits and the setbacks of telling this story in such a particular way. From one angle, the filmmaker and cinematographer Jomo Fray use the camera quite effectively as a portal through which the viewer experiences some truly horrific events up close, forcing them to go through everything that young Elwood and Turner do without being able to wriggle free. You really are trapped as much as they are in such unpleasant circumstances, and as such you’re left with no choice but to witness these dramatized, but no less real, instances of institutional racism that so many young people of colour were, and in some cases still are, subjected to throughout their lives.

But from another angle, the method can get in the way of letting its narrative achieve the emotional reactions that it desires. A number of scenes feature characters simply talking to the camera (meant to be either Elwood or Turner), and sometimes they are elevated by the strong performances by its cast – Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor is a standout as Elwood’s grandmother – but the inclusion of some restricting camera movements, such as when characters reach in for a hug and you can see the camera maintaining its distance from the actor, can make it feel a little awkward in its staging. It can take you out of the film momentarily, as you’re focusing more on the ways in which this camera perspective is being utilised than you are on the dramatic impact of the scene itself.

Though the execution is somewhat spotty, it remains a powerful tool that helps transform Nickel Boys into a compelling historical drama which you’ll feel both ashamed and angry all at once. Seeing so much vile treatment towards young boys from authority figures who discriminate and abuse at will, almost like they’re not-so-secret mobsters dishing out executions whenever necessary, is a harrowing sight, and more so when it’s framed as though it is happening to us, in addition to them. In many ways, this is even more insidious as the film dares the viewer to consider what life was or even is like for young people to be unfairly harassed for the colour of their skin, arguably more than even some of the best Black-centric dramas that have successfully conveyed what it is to live life in fear of discrimination. It’s enough to leave you seething that we as humans are capable of doing such terrible things to other humans, and fiercely regretful that we, via our blind ignorance and denial, allowed it to happen until it was too late.

Whether or not you’re on board with its main gimmick, and there were many times where I was going back and forth on it, Nickel Boys does a fine job of planting you firmly in the middle of the situation, and daring you to consider what you’d do if placed in it yourself – not just as a Black person, but as a human being capable of enduring such unspeakable things in our deeply flawed society.

SO, TO SUM UP…

Nickel Boys is a powerful exploration of the horrific racial abuse within 60s America through the literal eyes of its protagonists, via a gimmick that has its many benefits but also enough awkwardness to momentarily take you out of an otherwise solid drama.

Four of of five stars

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