I had never heard of Colson Whitehead’s novel Nickel Boys before seeing this film. I can be a bit of a philistine regarding prose fiction novels, as I’d rather read more nonfiction prose since I like to save my imagination for my own stories and worlds. So, going into this film adaptation directed by RaMell Ross and starring Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, I was going in mostly blind other than knowing the film is shot through first-person perspective. For some, that seemed very off-putting, but for me, after decades of playing video games, taking in a serious narrative from the first person is now very much as natural as the familiar 3rd person camera perspective.
Nickel Boys is set in 1962 in Tallahassee, Florida, and is about a boy named Elwood Curtis (Herisse), who is very smart and does well at school. His teacher, Mr. Hill (Jimmie Fails), encourages him to think for himself to know actual history versus what’s in the leftover books they get, inspiring him to be involved in the Civil Rights Movement. This worries his Grandmother Hattie (Ellis-Taylor), who’s raised him his whole life, and thinks this can cause trouble for his life with the greater white society. After getting accepted into a tuition-free study program at an HBCU (Historically Black College or University), his life is turned upside down when he accepts a ride from a man while Elwood walks to the school. Unbeknownst to Elwood, this man is driving a stolen car. The police stop them, the man is caught, and Elwood is charged as an accomplice. He’s now sent to the Nickel Academy because he’s still a minor. His life there is very much torture, but he makes a friend in Turner (Wilson), another boy there who sees the world differently in a way closer to Elwood’s Grandmother and tries to persuade Elwood to just survive through this without fighting for what’s right.
Let me be very honest I did not enjoy this film at all. I feel I’ve reached my limit of these stories of the mid-20th century struggles of Black people or even those during Slavery through the Civil War. I think these stories are important to be told as forces, much like in the film, are very much trying to erase these dirty and often parts of United States history should be told. I just kind of want to opt-out for a bit. Yet that’s not the job, is it? First, let me say that RaMell Ross and cinematographer Jomo Fray made probably the best-looking film of all of 2024. Everything is so easy to follow, even as the perspective changes from Elwood and Turner during the film.
Later on, there are segments in the future of those characters that choose to be set behind the head of the character it’s focusing on, which adds a very interesting storytelling element to the film. Ethan Herisse, who I mostly only know from his work in Ava DuVernay‘s When They See Us, captivates with his performance here. He makes Elwood real as he’s able to push back against the injustice he sees in this terrible academy and how it treats the many Black people there. He’s still able to come across as a young person you want to protect but can’t, and his friendship with Turner is a delight.
Brandon Wilson, I don’t know if they talked about enough in all the dialogue I’ve seen about this film. He plays Turner as the coolest kid onscreen in a long time, but he is also very vulnerable. That coolness and, in many ways, the coolness that was created by Black men from around the bebop era through to now is just that, a cynical exoskeleton to protect themselves from the feelings the world has you go through in a place that never actually safe for you. Safety is a very fleeting thing that he doesn’t expect, whereas Elwood does because the love of his Grandmother showed him a different life. Turner wasn’t that lucky, which is shown in the subtlness of Wilson’s performance.
I think Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor steals the film when she’s onscreen, though. Every time she’s onscreen, you want more of her character as she fights and fails to get her grandson out of this situation, and the sadness as her boy with so much potential and was sent off to excel had his life destroyed by mere happenstance. There’s a lot going on with her performance, with a ton of depth and familiarity I feel for many Black folks with her character and how she plays it. Her character and the way her home is shot feel like a memory of home, a safe place that Grandmothers play in many Black people’s lives. The acting and the filmmakers deserve credit for how they were able to do this.
As I said earlier, this wasn’t a film I particularly liked, but I respect the hell out of everything done to make it. It’s an excellent film. This story of kids going through hell – and they are kids as calling them young men in our society makes them fully grown adults might’ve been just not for me this year. ReMell Ross should be rocketed up the director stratosphere with this film. All the actors should get as many awards as they can. I hope people see this film, even though I plan on not rewatching it for some time. Nickel Boys is one of the best films of this winter season and Awards season, and it deserves all the accolades it’s receiving.
Score: A
