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Nickel Boys
It was one of the most acclaimed films of 2024, receiving Oscar nominations for Best Picture and for Adapted Screenplay, but for this reviewer, Nickel Boys was a stuffy and pretentious look at race relations in the 1960's with an Oscar-nominated screenplay that splits off in too many directions to determine exactly what the movie is supposed to be about.
The film opens in Florida during the 1960's where we meet an intelligent black teen named Elwood who is on his way to great things in his life when hitchhiking to his new school, the car he is riding in gets pulled over and in the very next scene, Elwood is observed being transported to a reform school called Nickel where he strikes up a friendship with another kid named Turner that is key to his survival.
The film begins very strangely with the viewer seeing everything from Elwood's point of view, as if he were making a home movie. As a matter of fact, it's 36 minutes into the laboriously overlong 2 hour and 19 minute running time that we see Elwood's face for the first time. Then there's a scene where Elwood and Turner are in the cafeteria with four other boys and we first see the scene from Elwood's point of view and then the exact same scene from the viewpoint of the other boys and it's not really made clear what the point of that was.
Though the film is based on a Pulitzer-Prize winning novel by Colson Whitehead, apparently Nickel is a real institution that was in operation until circa 2011 and the film eventually does reveal what the film is supposed to be about, but it takes way too long to get there. There are also several scenes with Elwood's grandmother, played by Oscar nominee Aunjanue Willis-Taylor (King Richard) that bring the film to complete halt. There is one particularly cringy scene between Grandma and Turner, shot from Turner's point of view, where Grandma has been told she can't see Elwood but takes this opportunity to flirt with Turner.
Director and co-screenwriter RaMell Ross gets a little too full of himself by employing artsy camera technique and deadening pacing that really requires a lot of patience from the viewer. This is another example of how weak the year 2024 was for film because this film didn't deserve either of the Oscar nominations it received or the acclaim it had. The performances by Ethan Herisse as Elwood and Brandon Wilson as Turner are superb, but I don'r get what all the fuss was about.
It was one of the most acclaimed films of 2024, receiving Oscar nominations for Best Picture and for Adapted Screenplay, but for this reviewer, Nickel Boys was a stuffy and pretentious look at race relations in the 1960's with an Oscar-nominated screenplay that splits off in too many directions to determine exactly what the movie is supposed to be about.
The film opens in Florida during the 1960's where we meet an intelligent black teen named Elwood who is on his way to great things in his life when hitchhiking to his new school, the car he is riding in gets pulled over and in the very next scene, Elwood is observed being transported to a reform school called Nickel where he strikes up a friendship with another kid named Turner that is key to his survival.
The film begins very strangely with the viewer seeing everything from Elwood's point of view, as if he were making a home movie. As a matter of fact, it's 36 minutes into the laboriously overlong 2 hour and 19 minute running time that we see Elwood's face for the first time. Then there's a scene where Elwood and Turner are in the cafeteria with four other boys and we first see the scene from Elwood's point of view and then the exact same scene from the viewpoint of the other boys and it's not really made clear what the point of that was.
Though the film is based on a Pulitzer-Prize winning novel by Colson Whitehead, apparently Nickel is a real institution that was in operation until circa 2011 and the film eventually does reveal what the film is supposed to be about, but it takes way too long to get there. There are also several scenes with Elwood's grandmother, played by Oscar nominee Aunjanue Willis-Taylor (King Richard) that bring the film to complete halt. There is one particularly cringy scene between Grandma and Turner, shot from Turner's point of view, where Grandma has been told she can't see Elwood but takes this opportunity to flirt with Turner.
Director and co-screenwriter RaMell Ross gets a little too full of himself by employing artsy camera technique and deadening pacing that really requires a lot of patience from the viewer. This is another example of how weak the year 2024 was for film because this film didn't deserve either of the Oscar nominations it received or the acclaim it had. The performances by Ethan Herisse as Elwood and Brandon Wilson as Turner are superb, but I don'r get what all the fuss was about.