'Nickel Boys' Review: RaMell Ross's Brilliantly Crafted Adaptation Is One of 2024's Best Movies (2024)

Every once in a while, a film comes along that feels like it's breaking new ground, finding new ways to beautifully tell a story that takes your breath away and immediately feels like it could become one of the great films of our time. In adapting Colson Whitehead’s modern classic novel The Nickel Boys, director and co-writer RaMell Ross tells the story of two Black teenage boys in 1960s Florida from an entirely first-person perspective, putting the viewer in their shoes, and making us feel every step of their painful, arduous journey through the Nickel Academy. A film adaptation could’ve been an ambitious way to bring this story to life that wears out its welcome fairly quickly. However, Ross creates a work of art that brilliantly adapts Whitehead’s book, while also finding his own ingenious way to film this story, and in doing so, creates easily one of the best films of 2024.

What Is 'Nickel Boys' About?

With Nickel Boys, we’re introduced to Elwood (played by Ethan Cole Sharp as a child, and Ethan Herisse as a teenager), who lives with his grandmother (a tremendous Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) in Florida during Jim Crow. Elwood is a great kid, working hard at his part-time job, fighting for rights in a growing number of Civil Rights protests, and one of the most impressive kids at school. When his teacher, Mr. Hill (Jimmie Falls), suggests that Elwood attend university classes, it’s a promising step for a teen who has shown nothing but promise. On his way to his first day of classes, however, Elwood’s life irrevocably changes when he takes a ride from a stranger in a stolen car. Instead of going to university classes, Elwood is convicted and sent to the Nickel Academy, a reform school for juveniles.

While little seems out of the ordinary on the white side of the school, the Black side is run down, with poor education, drunk teachers, and disgusting facilities. The students are forced to do manual labor and corporal punishment is doled out to the bad kids in a disturbing shack in the back, handled by the superintendent, Spencer (Hamish Linklater). Sometimes this punishment puts the students in the hospital, and other times, they never return to the academy. But at Nickel, Elwood soon meets Turner (Brandon Wilson), his guide and friend through the abuse and corruption, who makes life in this horrendous school somewhat manageable.

Giving us some hope for Elwood are occasional flash-forwards, in which we see an older Elwood (Daveed Diggs) living in New York City. But he's still haunted by his memories of the Nickel Academy. Since the school has closed down, many unnamed bodies have been found on the campus, and Elwood continues to search for answers about his experience and the horrors of his youth spent at Nickel.

RaMell Ross Finds a Powerful and Brilliant Way to Tell 'Nickel Boys' Story

Beyond its powerful story, Ross’s telling of this narrative is remarkable because of how he approaches Whitehead’s novel. Nickel Boys is told almost entirely from a first-person perspective, occasionally shifting to third-person, but always following Elwood and Turner. Films varying from The Diving Bell and the Butterfly to Hardcore Henry have attempted similar approaches, but never quite as effectively as Ross’s. We see most of this story from Elwood’s eyes, and when the story does decide to shift to Turner’s viewpoint, it’s jarring and beautiful, a showcase of how the same moment can be experienced in entirely different ways.

Ross is a fascinating choice for this project, as his gorgeous Oscar-nominated documentary, Hale County, This Morning, This Evening, similarly takes a more avant-garde take to the typical doc, interested more in mood, feeling, and ambiance than a focused structure. While Nickel Boys is certainly centered around a more specific story, the experimental vision remains present in Ross’s first narrative feature. There are flashes to old video footage and photos that initially appear to not make much sense to the story; but once the rest of the plot reveals itself, it all comes together in a staggeringly perfect way.

Ross’s directorial choice isn’t a gimmick, but rather, a superb way to get into Elwood’s experience that even a book isn’t able to present. Ross is clearly having fun experimenting with the different ideas that he can bring to life through this viewpoint. Whether it’s simply looking into a mirror, or turning this into a first-person horror story, Ross uses this approach to its full potential. But it also feels entirely natural, especially in what Elwood focuses on in important scenes. Instead of necessarily narrowing in on key characters or actions of a scene, Ross often centers on the things happening in the periphery, the small details that we remember from life’s big moments that feel honest and true.

For example, when Elwood’s grandmother takes an important phone call, Elwood fixates on a pamphlet from his university sliding down with a magnet on the refrigerator, as if it’s an opportunity moving out of his grasp. For his birthday, Ross has Elwood paying intricate attention to the way Hattie cuts his cake; each entry of the knife is something that Elwood can’t keep his eyes off. Ross is working with cinematographer Jomo Fray here, who also shot last year’s All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, which similarly took a unique look at what we remember in a story, be it a loved one’s hands, or the way a room feels as opposed to what’s going on within it. But again, this is a way for Ross to not only put us in Elwood’s shoes but explore this story from a relatable and specific perspective.

Ross Does the Impossible By Bringing ‘Nickel Boys’ to the Screen

Whitehead’s novel is not an easy read by any stretch of the imagination, and telling this story from this view seems like an impossible way to make it an easier pill to swallow. Yet Ross and co-screenwriter Joslyn Barnes turn this into a film that doesn’t hold your hand and doesn’t shy away from the atrocities, yet is immensely captivating from beginning to end. Even though the story of Elwood and Turner is a dark one, the moments of beauty hit even harder as these two find solace in each other. It’s a tough road that’s a bit easier to walk because these two have each other.

Herisse and Wilson both bring their characters to life with such depth, as we can feel the weight of their pasts weighing down on them while at the Nickel Academy. Elwood is full of optimism, a kid who worships the forward-thinking of Martin Luther King Jr., and is trying his best to use his smarts to get out of Nickel faster than usual, still dreaming of days back with his grandmother and learning at his university classes. But Turner, who has been at Nickel longer, knows how this school works and is aware that it’ll spit them both out if it can. This optimism versus pessimism comes through in the way Elwood and Turner look at the world—quite literally, thanks to Ross’s camera—and from simply the way they hold themselves or look at each other, questioning the other’s mentality.

Especially remarkable is Ellis-Taylor, who only gets the focus for a few scenes, but they make a world of difference. We can see the toll that having Elwood taken away from her has had on her throughout the film. With Elwood, she had a hope of a better world and brighter opportunities at first, but soon, she sees the way the world can destroy such hopes, especially for a Black kid growing up in 1960s Florida. It’s like we’re watching her go from Elwood’s joyful way of looking at the world to Turner’s defeatist view, and it’s a heartbreaking transition to see play out. Also excellent is Diggs, who we usually see from a third-person perspective, which in the context of this story, almost feels like Ross pointing out how othered Elwood feels still to this day. Even though we rarely see Diggs’s face, we feel Nickel on his back still, as he can’t look away from the updates about Nickel on the computer, and can’t be open about his past to those he loves. In his performances, Diggs shows how even breaking free from the institutions that hold one down doesn’t mean the bruises from the bindings aren’t still showing through.

'Nickel Boys' Is By Far One of the Best Films of the Year

All these pieces come together to form a tremendous film, one that deeply explores a history of resilience, pain, and hope through the eyes of those who suffered through the recent past. Ross has found an overwhelmingly perfect way to bring Whitehead’s story to the screen, one that feels like a step forward for how cinematic stories can be told. It’s beautiful, heart-wrenching, and refreshing in equal measure. Now, Nickel Boys is a masterpiece in two different formats.

Nickel Boys comes to theaters in the U.S. on December 13.

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Nickel Boys

Nickel Boys is a powerful, beautiful adaptation by RaMell Ross, with a staggering first-person perspective that makes this one of the year's best.

Pros

• RaMell Ross's first-person perspective for this story works perfectly, and never feels like a gimmick.
• The performances across the board are excellent, including an always-great Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor.
• Ross's film brings Colson Whitehead's novel to life in brilliant detail.