The Reel Review
Wrongly convicted of a crime, Ellwood, a bright Black teenager in 1962 Jim Crow-era Florida, is sent to an infamous juvenile reform school, the Nickel Academy, where he befriends another boy, Turner, as they endure a climate of systemic abuse. Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor star in this historical drama based on a true story.
Rather than tell a linear story and let this disturbing history speak for itself, director/co-writer RaMell Ross instead goes a wildly creative route, telling his more lyrical, imagery-filled story through the first person perspective of each boy. These are all bold choices but unfortunately his heavily avant garde style over substance feels more like an out-of-place fever dream, serving only to pull the viewer out of the narrative.
In the third act, even the present-day first-person perspective gets clunky, despite it setting the stage for an intriguing twist in the final act if you are paying enough attention to figure it out. The strongest elements of the film are the outstanding period set design and costuming, cinematography incorporating archival video from that era, and a haunting performance by Ellis-Taylor as Ellwood’s grandmother. It is just a shame the story didn’t have the more coherent screenplay it deserved.
REEL FACTS
• Nickel Boys is nominated for two 2025 Oscars, for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay. It was adapted from the 2019 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.
• Nickel Boys is based on the story of Jerry Cooper. a 16-year-old White teen who in 1961 was mistakenly charged with car theft and sent to the Florida’s Dozier School for Boys, where he was subjected to brutal beatings and witnessed sexual abuse and murders committed by the staff.
• Although set in Tallahassee, Florida, Nickel Boys was filmed throughout South Louisiana in New Orleans, LaPlace, Hammond, Ponchatoula, and Thibodaux.
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