Up to Best Picture nominee #7 now. This movie reminded me in a little of If Beale Street Could Talk—both are visually stunning period pieces dealing with heavy, traumatic subject matter. It also made me very curious about what the book is like.
What’s It About?
Elwood’s promising future seems to slip away when he finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Once on his way to technical college, he’s now being sent to a bleak, brutal reform school. While there, he befriends a boy named Turner who shows him how to survive Nickel Academy.
Who’s in It?
Elwood is played by Ethan Herisse, who I saw in When They See Us as Yusef Salaam. I’m not familiar with Brandon Smith, who plays Turner. Both actors turn in lovely, subtle performances, although they’re not accessible in the traditional way. The film is shot entirely from a first-person POV, first Elwood’s, and then later with some of Turner’s perspective mixed in. As a result, we only see either boy onscreen when the other is looking at him. The only time we see them in a shot together is in a scene where they're both looking up at the same reflective surface. Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, who I thought was great in Lovecraft Country, is spectacular in her small role as Elwood’s nana. The film also features Hamish Linklater as Spencer, the man in charge of Nickel, and Luke Tennie (Sean from Shrinking!) as a fellow student.
What’s It Nominated For?
Nickel Boys was nominated for two Oscars:
· Best Picture
· Best Adapted Screenplay
What Do I Love About It?
· As I said, this movie reminds me of If Beale Street Could Talk in the way it can explore such intense, horrific subject matter and combine it with some of the most gorgeous shots I’ve seen on film. It’s something in the cinematography and the lighting, and it’s amplified by the fact that such moments of beauty are captured within a story that contains such ugliness. It’s simply breathtaking.
· As Elwood and Turner deal with life at Nickel, I appreciate that we’re really able to understand where both of them are coming from. Elwood, who had been getting into civil disobedience prior to his arrest, believes in the importance of standing up for what’s right. He believes in taking a stand for the morality of it, and critically, he believes that change is tangibly possible. He doesn’t want to keep his head down to protect himself, because he thinks that turning a blind eye to Nickel’s abuses makes him culpable too. It’s easy to look at the two boys and say Elwood has the “right” viewpoint. But this is his first time at Nickel, and he has people on the outside who care about him, teaching and encouraging those principles by which he lives. Turner has been on this depressing, dangerous rodeo before, with no one to support him. So it’s understandable why he thinks Elwood’s ideals are naïve, why he looks out for himself because nobody else will. As he points out, a desegregated lunch counter doesn’t matter much to him when he couldn’t afford to eat there anyway.
· I appreciate the brief glimpses we get of the adult Elwood years later, almost obsessively following the news stories about the unmarked graves discovered on the former grounds of Nickel. It’s an effective reminder that, despite society’s penchant for black-and-white photos, this history was very recent and affected plenty of people who are still alive today. It also shows how the memories of Nickel continue to affect Elwood and other boys who were sent there—some are never able to “move on” with their lives, and those that do still carry the mental and physical scars from those years.
Warnings
Violence (mostly offscreen,) language (including racial slurs,) drinking/brief drug use, and strong thematic elements.
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