“Nickel Boys” delivers an imaginative drama of friendship countering racism

Incorporating appalling events from the real-life Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys, director ReMell Ross’s “Nickel Boys” adapts Colson Whitehead’s 2019 novel detailing brutality at that juvenile reformatory. After a 2012 forensic anthropology survey documented numerous unmarked graves and over 100  deaths, further Investigation authenticated barbaric treatment at this Florida reform site for over one hundred years, 1900 to 2011.

Cross-cutting between the 1960s and 2010s, the film focuses on the life-sustaining, slowly developing friendship at the Nickel Academy between newly and erroneously incarcerated teenager Elwood Curtis and veteran prisoner Jack Turner. Highlighting the resilience of both young men, “Nickel Boys” burrows deep into the emotional and physical pain the school’s sadistic, merciless, racist treatment caused.

Almost seventeen, inspired by Martin Luther King, Jr.'s speeches on television and on LPs, by freedom riders, and by belief in humane progress, as well as teacher Mr. Hil's encouragement, Elwood heads to a technical school south of Tallahassee. He collides headlong with the Jim Crow South. Of critical importance, throughout the film, the love of his grandmother Hattie sustains Elwood even as it confounds and blocks her best efforts. Nevertheless, Hattie remains steadfast in her involvement and support, a love evident in Elwood's optimism versus Turner's more realistic views. Ethan Herisse as Elwood, Brandon Wilson as Turner, and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor are magnificent. They steal your heart and soul.

Technically innovative, emphasizing audience's subjective viewing experience, Ross insists on a first-person point-of-view for the first third of the film, segueing to some more conventional compositions in later scenes.  At the Telluride Film Festival where I saw "Nickel Boys," co-screenwriter/director Ross elaborated on this choice, saying, "I don't want the audience to passively consume but rather to enter into and identify with the characters." Ross believes Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize winning novel required a radical change, a reinvention of the camera, to more impactfully convey these experiences. Images are tied to characters' bodies, inviting our involvement. Through this shift, it is hoped that the audience more fully feels the love and rejects the hate and brutality. On my top ten list, "Nickel Boys" is available now.