RaMell Ross’s unconventional lens captures the pain and endurance of reform school boys.
Shot in a kind of splintered impressionistic style by avant-garde photographer and filmmaker RaMell Ross of the acclaimed 2018 documentary “Hale County This Morning This Evening,” “Nickel Boys” addresses the dreadful legacy of reform schools in the South, where it has been discovered that students were abused, enslaved and even murdered. “Nickel Boys” is a fictional account of one such school, the real-life Dozier School in Florida. The film is based on a 2019 novel by Colson Whitehead.
What Ross, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Joslyn Barnes, does is shoot in a squarish aspect ratio from the first-person point of view of a boy named Elwood Curtis (Ethan Herisse), who grows up with his doting Nana (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, “King Richard”). Elwood excels at school and is given a berth at a prestigious academy some distance away. Hitchhiking to classes, Elwood gets picked up by a young Black man in a stolen car. When a police officer stops them, Elwood is arrested.
This is what happens. But my summary in no way addresses the way we experience the film. We not only experience things through Elwood’s eyes. Director Ross cuts scenes into tiny, at times shaky pieces. The film appears to lack an attention span. People and landscapes come and go, over and over. Ross has a thing for oranges (this is Florida, after all). We see Nana in a maid’s uniform sweeping up something while white people eat and chat around her without acknowledging her presence.
The film is set in the 1960s. Elwood is interested in “civil disobedience” and the lunch counter sit-ins in the South. We see snippets of Martin Luther King, and news reports about Apollo 8. Nana narrates some scenes in which we see her. “Your portion is pain,” she observes. Elwood reads Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” and gives an intelligent plot description. Out of the blue, we see the opening credits for Stanley Kramer’s groundbreaking 1958 chain-gang movie “The Defiant Ones” starring Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis as convicts who are chained together at a time when most theaters in the South were segregated. Ross’s shooting style might dazzle some. I found it distracting and lacking narrative value. What was important in the story gets delivered in bits. Character and story are sacrificed at the altar of style. After about an hour, the POV changes from Elwood’s to that of a friend he makes at Nickel Academy, a young man named Turner (Brandon Wilson, “The Way Back”).
At Nickel, Elwood hears a boss named Spencer (Hamish Linklater) explain that the boys start out as “Grubs” and aspire to become “Aces.” Spencer also savagely beats and whips the boys in a cell-like room. In at least one scene, we see both Elwood and Turner standing on a sidewalk, looking up. Why is the POV suddenly third person? Who knows. “Nickel Boys” also features expressive sound design.
Flashing visions caught in the squarish opening of a train car doorway suggest a real-life version of the escape in “The Defiant Ones.” Who’s escaping? We’ll find out. Gators pop in and out of places. Again, this is Florida. “Keep your nose clean,” an old man advises. A young white man (Fred Hechinger) forces Elwood and Turner to help him sell food and supplies sent to Nickel Academy from the back of a truck to local businesses. Toward the end, a new narrative line suggests Elwood will survive and even thrive. Whose antique buttons are these? What’s a good name for a moving company? Ace.
‘Nickel Boys’
Rating: PG-13 for violent content, some strong language, racial slurs, smoking, racism, and thematic material.
Cast: Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor
Director: RaMell Ross
Writer: Ross, Joslyn Barnes, Colson Whitehead
Running Time: 140 minutes
Where to Watch: In theaters
Grade: B
Boston Movie News 