Film Pick of the Week: Nickel Boys - review by Yvette Huddleston

Shot using point of view camerawork, interspersed with lyrical close-ups and resonant archive footage of significant historical events of the period, the viewer is immediately immersed in the world of its protagonist. Elwood (Ethan Herisse) is a bright young boy, brought up by his loving grandmother Hattie (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor). At school Elwood is encouraged by a supportive, inspirational teacher to get involved in the Civil Rights movement and to continue his studies at a community college. When Elwood successfully secures a place to study there, both he and his grandmother are delighted, but then fate cruelly takes him in a direction.

As he is hitchhiking to campus, Elwood makes the innocent mistake of accepting a lift from a man who it turns out has stolen the car he is driving and is on the run from the police. For no other reason than the colour of his skin, Elwood is implicated as an accessory to the crime, despite his protestations to the contrary, and he is convicted and sent to a notorious reform school, the Nickel Academy loosely based on a notorious real-life institution, now closed) leaving his beloved grandmother behind and having to deal with the injustice of his tragic situation.

Once he arrives at the school, which is a place of brutality, racism and despair, Elwood is forced to adjust to the institution’s horrific realities. A small glimmer of light comes in the form of his friendship with Turner (Brandon Wilson) who has been at the school for a while. Against all the odds, together they find moments of humanity and hope for the future. The narrative moves back and forth in time as we get glimpses of Elwood’s adult life, twenty years on reading about unmarked graves found at the Nickel.

While its subject matter is often difficult, shocking and disturbing, Nickel Boys is a film of great haunting beauty. Avoiding the pitfalls of many big screen literary adaptations, director RaMell Ross has made a potent piece of storytelling through film that, while faithful to the essence of the source material, brings with it its own unique identity. It is filmmaking of the most assured kind, aided by Jomo Fray’s luminous cinematography, that pushes at boundaries to create an immersive cinematic experience.