Review – Nickel Boys (2025) directed by RaMell Ross.
Watched on January 12th, 2025
Rating: 5/5 Stars
On May 3rd, 2024, I made a gamble on something that would ultimately change my life. Without knowing where my future was headed after graduating from college, I fairly spontaneously decided to buy a pass to the 62nd New York Film Festival. I think I knew in my heart, regardless of if I would be based in New York City or not, that I would do everything I could to actualize this occasion. I did make it to the festival in October, spending a week watching some of the most amazing contemporary films surrounded by such a vibrant and passionate audience of people seeking out the most impactful and interesting new films. My pass didn't include a ticket to Nickel Boys which was the festival's Opening Night Film (plus I only attended the festival for a week, and the film premiered before my stay in the city), but it was through this exposure that I first learned about this movie. Upon hearing its rave reviews and unique and revolutionary cinematography, I was sad to have been so close to its NYFF debut, yet it sparked a desire within me: in knowing it would be a few months until its wide release in theaters following festival previews, I committed to buying the book it was adapting as a way to experience this film more fully. And not only that, but I learned that the book's author, Colson Whitehead, had also penned The Underground Railroad which Barry Jenkins recently adapted into a limited television series; I also bought this book and decided to give myself the goal of reading both books and watching The Underground Railroad to soak up both of Whitehead's cinematic adaptations. To say I had hyped up this movie would be an understatement; not only had I given myself these tasks leading up to the film's eventual release, but I ended up throughly enjoying both the book and TV show of The Underground Railroad, and was blown away by Colson Whitehead's The Nickel Boys. I had a lot of hopes coming into this film, but in so many ways it still managed to surprise me, providing me with what I think (and seemingly many others think) is one of the best and most important movies of the year.
The source material for this movie is incredible. It's so masterfully written, with Whitehead's voice and style being one I've grown to admire greatly, while also marveling at how brilliantly the story and characters are. He balances a lot of heavy and important ideas about race, injustice, and trauma in his words, and this movie does no different. As I've felt with many adaptations, understanding the core feeling of its source material is the most important thing to replicate, and this movie does that so well. There's such a beautiful sense of care and wonder infused in all of these characters; it feels so wonderful to see these character's you've grown to care about on the page and see them so perfectly and faithfully represented on the screen. Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor are one of the biggest reasons why this movie is as good as it is; they're all spectacular in this.
Probably the most standout element of this film is its POV-style, with almost every shot being from the perspective of our main two characters. It makes for not only some of the most beautiful and inventive cinematography I've seen, but it allows for nuances and details that are filled with feelings of discovery or admiration for the simple things in life (as these lives in the film are anything but simple). There's a lot of small details that I did and didn't pick up on, and make me want to rewatch the film dozens of times. It's abstract and unique but it works on a practical and emotional level for me.
Additionally, one thing I loved about this and The Underground Railroad were just how vibrant and colorful they both were. I think about this passage from Angelica Jade Bastién's essay on the The Underground Railroad (which I also referenced in my review for that show):
"When the series was released in 2021, it was met with wide acclaim for its operatic sweep, which lends it an air of importance. But while recognizing the gravity of its subject matter, major publications (and their predominantly white critics) often framed the show as a history lesson rather than as the complex sensory experience it is. At the same time, many of my Black colleagues seemed apprehensive about its mixture of horror and visual pleasure. Yet I was reminded of something that Toni Morrison once said about the “absolute necessity” of beauty: “I don’t think it’s a privilege or an indulgence. It’s not even a quest. I think it’s almost like knowledge, which is to say, it’s what we were born for.” Do our ancestors not deserve beauty as much as we do? Did they not suffuse their existence with it in every hard-won way they could? Are their stories important only because of the suffering they contain? Among the many things that distinguish Jenkins’s Underground Railroad is its understanding that Black joy and Black trauma cannot be cleaved from each other."
Nickel Boys feels absolutely the same in its visual beauty despite such a traumatic and tragic story. This paired with the film's cinematography gives the film such beauty alongside its devastating narrative and social discussion.
While I'll never know this personally, I would have been interested to know what this movie was like to watch without the context of the book. I loved reading the book first, but in a lot of ways, I felt when watching the film that I was understanding certain parts of the film because I had the context from the book, and that the film may not have explained things as it did in the book. I think the movie is a spectacular companion to the book and probably does stand on its own (as many people rave about this film who probably haven't read the book too), but at times I felt that things maybe seemed to make sense for me only because I knew it from the book. I think the book doesn’t hold your hand as much, but it feels much more like fleeting moments and memories which I think resonates a lot with the film’s impact. Additionally, I think knowing the film's ending from the book stole some of its emotional punch, but the movie still manages to pull off an ending that I'd imagine wasn't very easy to translate from book-to-screen.
It's not everyday a movie like this comes out. It feels like the kind of film people will be talking about for years (and maybe even decades) to come. From its groundbreaking POV storytelling, to its masterful work as an adaptation, to the power of its performances, to its importance as a story based on truth: Nickel Boyswill be remembered for a long time, and is certainly one of the most interesting and powerful movies I've seen. Still, filmmakers can reinvent the wheel with what cinema can be; movies like this make me excited for the future, and happy that exciting visionary original works like this still exist. Hoping this reaches the widest of audiences, as I think so many people should see this movie, should see movies like this.
Check out the original review posted on Letterboxd here.
