Nickel Boys

Two teenage boys (Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson) try to survive being stuck in a horrifying ‘reform school’ (read: informal prison) in 60s Florida.

This is one hell of an achievement. It’s shot in the first person ‘through the eyes’ of the protagonists, sharing time between the two characters but also cutting between periods in their lives.

The biggest hurdle is making this not seem like a gimmick, but RaMell Ross makes it look like every film should have been made this way. He’s just so careful about what he chooses to show - little observations, delicate movements, micro-emotions from the people in the scene. It’s so beautiful and devastating.

This is based on a real place, a segregated school for juvenile delinquents. Years later they found hundreds of unmarked graves, with the body count being 3:1 black to white kids that were murdered. To my shame I had no idea these schools existed this far into 20th century America, all while the civil rights movement was going on. It could have been set 200 years before.

If it sounds harrowing, it is, but Nickel Boys juxtaposes the terrible goings on inside the school with a hazy almost dream-like tone. It’s profound and emotional and human, and another testament to the power of film in storytelling.