Nickel Boys – REVIEW

Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson in Nickel Boys


It’s not too often that I have to sit on a movie for this long. I needed to start off with that because I saw Nickel Boys a few weeks back. I want to see all of the Best Picture nominees at the Oscars this year, and this was one of them. Based on Colson Whitehead’s novel, it tells the story of two Black kids who live in an abusive reform school during the peak of segregation in the 1960s. The story is also heavily inspired by the true story of Dozier School for Boys, which was an infamous reform school in Florida that abused their students. I wanted to highlight that because I learned what inspired this story just as I was researching for this review, and it really brings a heavier weight to an already heavy movie. That’s another reason why it took me some time to reflect on Nickel Boys: Not just based on the subject matter, Nickel Boys is a movie that instantly enters the canon of instant classics. Watching this reminded me of seeing Uncut Gems for the first time back in 2019 and going “oh, people are going to say this inspired them to get into movies/filmmaking.” It should also be said that I didn’t know anything about this other than the synopsis and the poster for this, which is very similar to the picture for this post. There’s a massive swing done for Nickel Boys when it comes to the presentation of the movie, and it will be a make-or-break element for anyone interested. Nickel Boys is entirely presented in a first person point-of-view of our main character, Elwood, played incredibly by Ethan Herisse. The only switches come from Turner, and that doesn’t even occur until they meet in the movie. The switches to Turner, who Brandon Wilson brings to life on screen, also feel organic to telling the rest of this tragic story. It wouldn’t work without either one of them, but that’s not to say the rest of the cast is holding their weight. Hamish Linklater, who plays the White administrator of Nickel Academy, is terrifying to watch prey on these students. Fred Hechinger, who had a banner 2024, also comes across sinister as one of the academy’s employees. Daveed Diggs, who plays a grown-up Elwood, is used sparingly but his presence hits hard. Like other people I’ve seen and talked with about this, I can’t talk about Nickel Boys without Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor’s monumental performance as Elwood’s mother. This is where Jomo Fray’s first person POV camerawork is at its best, seeing everything through Elwood’s eyes and feeling how his mother is giving her life to him, even when we can’t see her. In the hands of someone that wouldn’t be Ross and Fray, Elwood’s mother would arguably be the main character. Not to say that it would be a worse movie, but it would feel much more dull. Even the editing here is stunning, blending in different footage taken from different cameras and weaving in archival MLK speeches. What hit me the hardest was the use of The Defiant Ones, a 1958 movie starring Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier. I haven’t seen The Defiant Ones (the 50s in general are a blindspot of mine), but it felt clear to me that the use of this movie throughout Nickel Boys was supposed to represent how Hollywood and America as a whole viewed racism during that time: the “solution” to racism was self-respect, even if it usually meant that the Black character has to sacrifice something. It could mean something even deeper once I actually watch The Defiant Ones. Having the context or not doesn’t change just how major Nickel Boys already feels, which makes its snubs at the Oscars much more disappointing.


Ryan’s Grade: A+