“Nickel Boys,” playing at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Center starting Jan. 31, is not an easy film. Based on the Pulitzer-prizewinning novel by Colson Whitehead, the tale is raw. The film’s title refers to the Nickel Academy, a reform school in Florida modeled on the Dozier School for Boys, which severely abused its young charges, most of whom were boys of color.
One of the striking aspects of “Nickel Boys” is the cinematography. It is shot entirely from a first-person perspective, as though we are looking through the eyes of the two main characters. For most of the film, we see the world through Elwood Curtis’ gaze. Elwood (Ethan Cole Sharp) is a young boy at the beginning, and we gaze up at the trees and sky as he lies in the grass, luxuriating in the peace of a lazy, warm day with only a distant voice calling to him. We soon learn that the voice belongs to his grandmother (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor), who is raising him with immense love. Yet despite the security at home, the outside world is not safe. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speeches and scenes of Black oppression in town place us squarely in 1960s Jim Crow–era Tallahassee.
When Elwood becomes a teen (now played by Ethan Herisse), one of his teachers, Mr. Hill (Jimmie Fails), takes a strong interest in him. Hill, a former Freedom Rider, encourages Elwood to think independently, which helps shape his character. Elwood is intelligent and inquisitive, and the teacher alerts him to free college classes available to high school students. The exciting prospect turns sour when as Elwood hitchhikes to the college, he is picked up by a man in a stolen car. When the police apprehend the man, Elwood is found guilty of being his accomplice.
Thus begins his incarceration in the brutal Nickel Academy system. The teachers and corrupt administrators terrorize the boys, but the bullying among them can also turn dire. Fortunately, Elwood befriends Turner (Brandon Wilson). Their initial encounter marks the first time the camera perspective changes, and we get to see what Elwood looks like. The bulk of the film centers on the boys’ powerful friendship and deepening bond as they try to navigate the hard physical labor of convicts, dilapidated living conditions, and the constant threat of the adults’ violence against them. Although both youths are reserved, Elwood believes that he will get out with the help of the lawyer his grandmother has hired. Turner, on the other hand, is purely cynical. “The game is rigged,” he tells Elwood.
“It’s not like the old days,” Elwood insists. “We can stick up for ourselves.”
Director RaMell Ross weaves in brief flashes forward and back in time, allowing us to piece together how the narrative eventually unfolds. His fragmentary first-person approach to storytelling anchors us firmly in Elwood and Turner’s perspective, drawing us into the tale.
“Nickel Boys” begins on Jan. 31 at the M.V. Film Center.
Thank you to the man this book is based upon for fighting for justice for years. His activism finally closed this horrible “school” to create a brighter future for all of us.
Thank you to everyone in the chain of creating this movie, including the viewers, so that this type of injustice will never happen again.
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