There is so much to unpack in RaMell Ross’ “Nickel Boys” (2024) that it is hard to do justice with words. It is poetic and poignant as it blends historical fiction with a coming-of-age tale and a bruising prison drama. Although it revolves around two teenagers, it emerges as a collective portrait of an entire generation that struggled through the Jim Crow era. The film primarily follows Elwood (Ethan Herisse), a 17-year-old bright student, who seeks a higher education and hopes for a secure future. His doting grandmother motivates him in the same direction until one day when he finds himself in trouble.
While on his way to class, Elwood gets offered a car ride. He naively accepts the offer only to realize something shocking about it. Soon, he gets sentenced to Nickel Academy, a ruthless reformatory in Southern America. His dreams get shattered as he finds himself being forced to correct a mistake he did not commit. During the unfair incarceration, he gets punished just like the other Black boys stuck in this brutal prison. They are treated strikingly differently than Caucasian inmates and are made aware of these differences.
The skin-crawling brutality sees no bounds inside the walls, where they are physically and mentally tortured. They are forcefully indoctrinated by the authorities, who use carefully constructed verbiage to claim their superiority. It doesn’t fit into Elwood’s understanding of the world as he was well aware of the biased narratives being spewed in the country. He admired the spirit of Civil Rights activists. Elwood intently listened to Martin Luther King Jr.’s words and paid attention to Sidney Poitier whenever he showed up on the screen. He imbibed their rebellious spirit while living in a world that rarely concerned itself with his voice.
In the academy, Elwood and his black peers are constantly dehumanized without any care or compassion. While coping with these tribulations, Elwood befriends Turner (Brandon Wilson), even if they do not see eye to eye on everything. Turner isn’t hopeful about a change in the world as Elwood has always been. His submission contradicts Elwood’s rebellion. Still, they find themselves drawn to each other due to a shared sense of quietness. Their introversion is unlike their domineering peers, who cope with their emotional struggles through a projection of power.
As said before, there is a lot to unpack in RaMell Ross’ film since it refuses to offer any comforting expositions. The narration retracts lengthy discussions and refrains from being a literal adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s novel. Instead, it remains elusive even when we see the world through the characters’ eyes. The film uses a subjective camera to offer this singular experience. The camera acts as the eyes into their world and captures their fear, regrets, and hopes without showing the face of the person experiencing it. So, as a viewer, you feel like a spectator in a world you inhabit.
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It also ties in with the characters’ omnipresent paranoia of feeling like they are being constantly observed. As a character struggles to breathe or search for light, it becomes a literal exercise for viewers to navigate their way around the world. The film uses this dizzy disorientation as different perspectives collide in its world. Whether humiliation, resistance, or endurance, the nuances are conveyed largely through camera movement or placement. While being an individualistic look into the narrative, it also offers an outlook that was either shunned, ignored, or ridiculed throughout history.
The film cleverly points out the nature of interpretation and its impact on our understanding of our world, whether through the script or the audio-visual narration. The camera shows their lived-in reality while the sound puts you in their headspace. Literal or allegorical, the visual and sonic elements add layers to its stimulating discourse without spelling out the relevance of its profundity.
The script does not offer incidents directly connecting the characters to key historical events, whether a march or space travel. It shows the characters continuing with their daily lives as these events make an appearance through a background announcement or a discussion. Still, these events – directly or indirectly – affect their lives since they occur when characters experience a crushing loss of innocence and ambition amid brief windows of joy and camaraderie. They are forced to feel guilty for being truthful and are expected to be grateful for minor favors.
In this harrowing tale, Brandon Wilson and Ethan Herisse emerge as a riveting acting duo, perfectly conveying their characters’ joys and sorrows. The same is the case with Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, whose gutting portrayal is one of the film’s highlights. She makes sure that we hear what Elwood’s grandmother wants to say, even in the brief pauses when she doesn’t utter a word. They convey her impeccable skills to milk out the most from a scene, even through a simple gaze or a minute gesture.
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