NICKEL BOYS
(director/writer: RaMell Ross; screenwriters: Joslyn Barnes, screenplay & novel by Colson Whitehead; cinematographer: Jomo Fray; editor: Nicholas Monsour; music: Scott Alario, Alex Somers; cast: Ethan Herisse (Elwood), Ethan Cole Sharp (Young Elwood), Daveed Diggs (Adult Elwood), Brandon Wilson (Turner), Sam Malone (Percy), Najah Bradley (Evelyn), Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor (Hattie), Hamish Linklater (Spencer), Fred Hechinger (Harper), Jase Stidwell (Boy at Playground); Runtime: 140; MPAA Rating: PG-13; producers: Joslyn Barnes, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, David Levine; Orion Pictures/Amazon MGM Studios; 2024)
“Artfully made.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Director and writer RaMell Ross (“Hale County This Morning, This Evening”), in the documentary filmmaker’s narrative debut, adapts to the screen the Pulitzer Prize-winning 2019 novel by Colson Whitehead that he co-writes with the author and Joslyn Barnes. It explores the lives of two Black youngsters growing up oppressed in Tallahassee, Florida in the 1960s segregated reform school of the Nickel Academy (a substitute for the abusive Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys).
Ross tells his artfully made story through the POV of the first-person. He films it so we hardly see the faces of the title characters.
It’s more or less a coming-of-age tale that covers the two boys learning about themselves while experiencing both brotherhood and bigotry.
It tells of the friendship that develops between Elwood (Ethan Herisse) and Turner (Brandon Wilson) while they attend the Nickel Academy reform school. The first half is told from Elwood’s perspective, who is the wrongfully convicted accomplice to a car theft. At the Academy he meets Turner and a friendship develops.
The authority figures at the reform school are the abusive white bigots. The sadistic school administrator Spencer (Hamish Linklater) and his bully henchman Harper (Fred Hechinger).
After Elwood(now played by Daveed Diggs) left the Nickel Academy, he moved to New York City in his middle-age and has lived there since the early 2000s. Elwood’s life has moments of optimism and times when he suffers from depression. Turner must also go through a heavy adjustment period after leaving the Nickel Academy.
Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor has a nice supporting role as Grandma Hattie to Elwood, who visits the reform school and shows concern about him.
It’s a powerful and well-crafted film that tells how racism and abuse in our educational institutions undermine the democratic values our country stands for. But it goes on for too long, as its message at times becomes heavy-handed and there are also a few awkward scenes that should been edited.
It played at the New York Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 12/18/2024 GRADE: B-
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