Nickel Boys film review finds first person lens haunting
Lindsey Bahr praises RaMell Ross for a powerful adaptation of Colson Whitehead's novel. The film, based on Dozier School abuses in Florida, uses a camera as eyes to follow Elwood and Turner through brutality. It blends memory and resilience with restrained, non-graphic depiction and strong performances.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
RaMell Ross
Jim Crow South
Ross
Joslyn Barnes
Colson Whitehead
Elwood
Turner
Florida
The
Nickel Academy
Dozier School For Boys
Florida Panhandle
Nickel Boys
Ethan Herisse
Tallahassee
Hattie
Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor
Martin Luther King Jr
Nickel
Fred Hechinger
Hamish Linklater
Brandon Wilson
Daveed Diggs
Nickel Boys follows new visual language in cinema
Photographer and filmmaker RaMell Ross adapts Colson Whitehead to tell Nickel Boys from the eyes of Elwood and Turner. The film, shot as a first person portrait of Black youth under Jim Crow at Nickel Academy in Florida, uses “sentient perspective” to immerse viewers in a body and challenge old cinematic norms.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
New York
RaMell Ross
Ross
Georgetown University
Colson Whitehead
Elwood
Ethan Herisse
Turner
Brandon Wilson
Florida
Nickel Academy
Nickel Boys
Midtown
Manhattan
Brown University
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Lindsey Bahr
MGM
Orion
Motion Picture Association of America
Associated Press
Robert Montgomery
Raymond Chandler
Humphry Bogart
Jomo Fray
Fray
Raven Jackson
Norah Mendis
Helisse
Wilson
Jomo
RaMell
Perspectives On
POV
Georgetown