The Oscar nominated movie “Nickel Boys” is astounding on many levels. The movie that was nominated for two Oscars left me captivated and engaged for the entire 2 hours and 20 minutes. The storytelling and uniqueness brought an interesting aspect to the way we view movies and the way stories are told through them.
The movie begins with a young boy, Elwood Curtis, who is raised by his grandmother. He lives an average life until one day, while walking to his first day of college, a man offers him a ride. They are eventually pulled over because the man stole the car and now Elwood is guilty by association even though he had no knowledge that the car was stolen or connection to the man. Instead of spending time in jail or other disciplinary actions, Elwood is moved to a reformatory school in Florida where black students and white students are separated. White students spend their time learning and playing football, while Black students do intense labor and are physically abused for even minor offenses. Elwood meets another student, Jack Turner, and the two develop a friendship and start spending a lot of time together while navigating their new lives.
Something that makes this movie so interesting and different to me is the way the camera captures the story. The majority of the movie is in a first person perspective moving between Elwood’s perspective and Turner’s perspective. The uniqueness of the perspective makes the movie more personal, and engages the audience in a different way. The perspective also made me feel more emotion than I would have felt if the movie had been in a third person perspective.
Every movie has acting in it; but the acting in this movie made the story, emotion, and thought come alive boldly. Ethan Herisse (Elwood Curtis) and Brandon Wilson (Jack Turner) played their roles with careful thought and knowledge of the situation they were in through these characters. The movie is based on the book by Colson Whitehead, which is based on the Dozier School for Boys. The story telling in this movie was done to perfection, even though Elwood Curtis and Jack Turner were not real people, I believed they were up until the very end.
The plot of the movie really showed me the secret racism in 1960’s America. Even though all of these boys in this school were being severely abused, nobody spoke out about it until the early 2000’s. Parents weren’t able to talk or see their kids in the school leaving so much unknown about what was truly going on within the walls of the school. I felt sad, hopeful, and enraged while watching this movie and seeing it unfold. The movie could be one of the best I have ever seen, and it opened my eyes to different ways stories can be shared.
I give this movie a 4.5 out of 5 because it was moving and impactful but there are definitely hard topics to talk about and moments that were depressing. The impact this movie had and the events told through it are very meaningful and need to be told. I encourage you to watch it.
