Movie Review: Nickel Boys

I tend to like it when directors take bold swings with their material, giving us something that feels fresh and exciting to witness. But of course, the reason they are so bold in the first place is because there is no guarantee that they will work. In the case of director RaMell Ross’ Nickel Boys, I don’t think it entirely does.

Growing up in 1960s Florida, Elwood (Ethan Herisse) is a bright young boy, whose intellect and idealism suggest that he has a bright future ahead of him. Due to his strong performance at school, he is selected to take part in a newly launched program offering advanced placement courses for Black children. As he is walking to school on the first day of classes, he accepts a ride from a stranger who it turns out is driving a stolen car. When the Police pull them over, he is arrested as an accomplice and sentenced to time in a juvenile reformatory known as Nickel Academy, a sequence which is weirdly and slightly confusingly glossed over.

Inspired by the real-life Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys, a Florida institution known for its cruel and violent treatment of the children in its care that was ultimately revealed to be responsible for several deaths, the Nickel Academy is here presented in a manner that strangely seems to downplay many of the atrocities committed within. Whereas the Colson Whitehead book the movie is based on made certain that the reader never forgot just how frightening and traumatic it would have been to be confined there, aside from one tense scene involving the punishment shed and the heartbreaking finale, Nickel Boys the movie makes the institution feel significantly more benign and even at times almost charming. It’s a weird choice to make about the site of so much suffering and it is one of two choices Ross has made that significantly hobble the film’s ability to get its message across (I’ll get to the other below).

Inside Nickel, Elwood befriends Turner (Brandon Wilson), who has a much more cynical view of the world but still helps the newcomer to navigate the facility and its internal politics. Up until the pair meet, the movie shows us (almost) everything from the first-person perspective of Elwood, but upon Turner’s arrival it begins to also alternate into his viewpoint as well. Of all of Ross’ directorial decisions this is certainly the bravest, and while it is intriguing at first, especially as we skim through Elwood’s childhood, it ultimately winds up working against the story. Presumably intended to put us in the characters’ shoes and make us better empathize with their predicament, it instead robs us of the majority of Herisse and Wilson’s performances and in turn much of the emotion within them.

Stranger still, when the movie flashes forward to show us an adult Elwood (Daveed Diggs), we leave the first-person perspective and now view him from just behind and slightly above, forced to look only at his hair. These are some of the most powerful moments of the story as we get a glimpse at the ways that the traumas inflicted on the young linger well into adulthood, but the stylistic choice made here keeps the viewer removed from the story, dulling its impact.

Some of RaMell Ross’ choices do work, in particular the decision to intersperse archival footage of newsreels from the era as well as from the real coverage of the discovery of bodies at the Dozier School and the choice to use Scott Alario and Alex Somers’ eerie, off-kilter score. The two leads both give strong performances, which makes it more of a shame that they are speaking from behind the camera so often, and the supporting cast including Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as Elwood’s grandmother Hattie also do good work, especially given the unusual scene structure.

Nickel Boys is a formally daring but languidly paced coming of age story about a pair of Black boys growing to rely on each other in the American South during a time of racial tumult and isn’t a bad movie by any stretch. But choosing to take the dark truth at its heart and treat it like background noise robs it of much of its power and keeps it from being great. ★★★