Film Review: Nickel Boys

Welcome back to the blog readers. As you know by now, I love me a good drama film as you could probably tell. But that truly is not the only reason I am excited to see this film. As you could probably tell, this is one of the ten Best Picture nominees and this film will conclude my "Best Picture Expedition." After this film, I will have successfully seen all 10 Best Picture nominees for the first time in five years. Would this film be a satisfying conclusion to the 11-month long journey? Stick around to find out.

Nickel Boys was directed by RaMell Ross from a screenplay by him and Joslyn Barnes, based on the novel The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead. The film stars Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Hamish Linklater, Fred Hechinger, Daveed Diggs, Jimmie Fails, and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor. In the film, set in 1960s Florida, two African-American boys named Elwood and Turner are sent to a reform school named Nickel Academy where they discover it is not all it is cracked up to be.

As one of the Best Picture nominees, I really wanted this film to be great, especially hearing the public discourse surrounding the film. To its credit though, it did manage to snag a second nomination in Best Adapted Screenplay, but it feels like it could have gotten at least one or two more. Having a day to sit on it, I have come to the conclusion that this film is depressing as hell. Not because it is bad, but because the story is tragic as hell. I think for the limited screen time she gets, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor gives an award-worthy performance. Plus, I want to praise the script and the cinematography for being groundbreaking in a way.

I first want to praise the performance of Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor in this film. Now I have to admit that before her Oscar-nominated role in King Richard (2021) I truly had no idea who she was. I may still have not seen King Richard, but I do want to mention that she is not in this film all that much. But she makes due with the time she is given and delivers a knockout performance for the ages. In her brief role she is able to give us warmth, compassion, a refusal to cede, and anguish when she needs to channel that emotion. It is an emotionally complex performance with so little screen time and I think she should have gotten more awards consideration for this powerful role.

Another of the major strengths of this film definitely has to do with the cinematography of the film. The man behind the camera for this film is Jomo Fray, who has shot films such as Port Authority (2019), Selah and the Spades (2020), and All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (2023) (all films I truthfully had never heard of before this moment). But the decision to shoot this film from a first-person point of view was genius in my opinion. Us seeing our actors involved in situations out of their control is tough and all, but seeing it from their point of view makes it even more visceral and heart-wrenching. Especially so for a film like this. And for the flashforwards to be shot from a third-person perspective like in a video game was also a stroke of genius. It made me feel like I was there experiencing all the horrors and atrocities up close. Jomo should really have been up for Best Cinematography if it were up to me.

Finally, I want to praise the script by RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes. I can definitely tell why this is one of the five nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay at the Oscars because the script was written with such a love and a reverence to the subject matter. In case you were not aware, the screenplay for this film was inspired by a novel, which itself was inspired by a real reform school in Florida called Dozier that did some very similar things as the Nickel Academy in this film. And I think it is a damn shame that things like this were even allowed to happen because the things that happen in this film are inhumane. I want to give Barnes and Ross a lot of credit for bringing such a tragic story (even though it is fictionalized for the purposes of this film) to light, to hopefully get some justice for anyone who has survived this tragedy.

One of the points of contention I do have with this film is the fact that while the story is tragic and fantastic at the same time, I feel as if we don't really get into the real tragedies that are alluded to throughout the duration of the film. This is the main problem I had with the film Civil War (2024), in which we don't really touch on why we are in the situation that we are in. I feel as if some of the shock value is sacrificed in favor of character work and some extended flashforward sequences that really do not come full-circle until the end of the film. I jus wish we had leaned more into the negative aspects (in terms of the events) of the story because it feels tame to me.

And the final thing I want to point out is the pacing of this film. Probably the main reason this film is not up for Best Editing is because the film also feels a bit disjointed at times. Between the pointless cuts to random things that do not pertain to the story at all, to the overreliance of flashforwards in the second half of the film (including one involving Daveed Diggs and an older "classmate"), the editor in charge of the film definitely does some things right but a lot of things they do are questionable at best.

In conclusion, Nickel Boys is a poignant and honest look at one of America's darkest chapters that also is disjointed at times. Thank you all for reading, and I will see you for the next post. Oscars are almost here, baby!