Movie stories are the backbone for great movies, I’m very certain of this. However, I constantly underestimate how a great director can really affect the film you’re watching, regardless of how good the story is. The story of Nickel Boys is rock solid, based on a great Colson Whitehead novel. But RaMell Ross’s vision for the movie adaptation is what makes Nickel Boys in consideration for one of the best films of the year. And in his first narrative feature nonetheless! Props to you Mr. Ross; I can’t wait to see what you conjure up next!
Elwood (Ethan Cole Sharp) is an innocent African American kid with a blossoming mind. His grandmother (Aunjanue Ellis Taylor) tries to protect him as best she can from the outside world, slowly introducing Elwood to why black kids should be scared living in Tallahassee in the 1920s. After a series of rotten luck choices, Elwood ends up at Nickel Academy, run by school administrator Spencer (Hamish Linklater). There, Elwood makes friends with Turner (Brandon Wilson), a “veteran” of places like these; the two help each other navigate the horrors of Jim Crow juvie until Elwood’s grandmother finds a way to help her grandson out of this godforsaken place.
Conjure is the right word for what RaMell Ross does here. Even during the darkest moments, watching Nickel Boys feels like a magic trick. Ross extends a way of filmmaking that has been used as a gimmick in the pass and expands it, infusing his movie with a new lens to tell his tale. The scope of Nickel Boys’s story essentially doubles the way Ross directs it, as we see life in Nickel Academy through different viewpoints, jumping between them, and coming together every now and again. And it’s not just a directorial flourish either; the end result of this choice makes complete sense, providing a final exclamation point onto the arc of the tale Ross delivers with his smart adaptation.
Because when you’re adapting one of the best books of the decade, everything you’re doing is to enhance and complement Colson Whitehead’s brilliant novel. For those unfamiliar with what The Nickel Boys is about, look into the horrors of the real life Dozier school for boys. We’re basically in segregated Shawshank, as Elwood and Turner try their best to not run afoul of the drunk on power Spencer and his minions. As cruel as that sounds, the story reveals deeper and deeper horrors that really show the danger of Elwood and Turner’s plights. And even in a terrible place like Nickel, we still get these fascinating, twin drawn characters to follow as they evolve, with the righteous Elwood and cynical Turner slowly taking on one another’s perspective. Every moment inside that prison is rich, complex, and tense as we push further and further towards some sort of breaking point.
Here I was thinking the Nickel Boys was gonna be some sort of aw shucks nickname for a couple of kids trying to start a business together. Regrettably like for many Dozier boys, hopes and dreams like that are left unfulfilled, on purpose. I consider that mistreatment to be some of life’s greatest crimes, so thanks to RaMell Ross for finding a new way into a story of a time and place we need to keep hearing about, so we always remember the sheer depth of the injustice done to African Americans until very recently, with the fight still raging on today.