{"id":693,"date":"2025-01-07T09:31:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-07T10:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spirit-of-service.org\/?p=693"},"modified":"2025-01-08T10:55:47","modified_gmt":"2025-01-08T10:55:47","slug":"movies-nickel-boys-review-american-masterpiece","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spirit-of-service.org\/index.php\/2025\/01\/07\/movies-nickel-boys-review-american-masterpiece\/","title":{"rendered":"MOVIES: Nickel Boys – Review: American Masterpiece"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Nickel Boys<\/i> is the adaption of Colson Whitehead\u2019s novel of the same name, from the author of The Underground Railroad<\/i>. It\u2019s a harrowing, true-story inspired novel of a boy who gets in the wrong car on a lift to college only to find it\u2019s been stolen, and gets arrested by the police before being sent to a reform school, that\u2019s essentially prison. Segregated by the racial divide and put in a harsher, more brutal school than the whites\u2019 only section, who get benefits of sport and other activities \u2013 Elwood bonds with kind veteran Turner, as we see the school from both boys unique first person POVs, alternating between them as we see the horror the school enacts on its subjects, both what is left said and what is left unsaid, both boys dreaming of a better future but being pessimistic about the present realities they live in.<\/p>\n

RaMell Ross\u2019 adaption of the book that saw Whitehead win the 2020 Pulitzer Prize is faithful, but ambitious. The system is rigged against both Turner and Elwood from the start, Hamish Linklater\u2019s ruthless schoolmaster tells the boys that they can show good character and work their way to the top and earn their freedom, but later scenes reveal that\u2019s not true, the system is rigged and other boys will find a way to tear you back down if not the staff themselves. The perspectives of Turner and Elwood are dived into and we get to see both encounters of their first meetings; the POV doesn\u2019t just change the camera viewpoint but also alters their character \u2013 we see Turner\u2019s pessimism drag down Elwood\u2019s initial optimism. <\/p>\n

Both characters show real depth, vulnerability and horror at what they\u2019re witnessing \u2013 Elwood\u2019s grandmother \u2013 played by the fantastic, brilliant Aujanue Ellis-Taylor – is turned away from greeting Elwood as he\u2019s locked up in a hospital at the wrong end of a beating, but she gives a present to Elwood \u2013 and a letter, giving renewed hopes of freedom. Turner doesn\u2019t hand over the letter, but perhaps out of guilt, fakes an illness to visit Elwood in the hospital. The style of the POV shooting gives the film an almost hypnotic perspective that\u2019s hard not to be drawn to, you end up experiencing everything *with* the characters rather than sat back and watching them. <\/p>\n

But also \u2013 an alternative take – it captures the world as it is remembered, rather than seen \u2013 these are Elwood\u2019s memories, as we see mid-2000s Elwood let his trauma consume him and overwhelm him as he meets a surviving Nickel graduate in a bar \u2013 learning what happened and doing alright, but not spectacular, for himself. This is perhaps the most tragic of it all, incredibly poignant in a New York bar \u2013 the scenes between Daveed Diggs and Craig Tate make for arguably, the best-acted performance of the entire past year. There are echoes of a sinister nature here \u2013 The Nickel Boys<\/i> recalls that of The Zone of Interest<\/i> at times in its subject matter and its filmography, and the story subject vitally important and quintessentially American. It\u2019s a major, major understanding once you get used to its POV \u2013 one of remembrance, what is remembered and what is not. What is understood only when you\u2019re older. <\/p>\n

The film is immersive, intense and moving; capable of breaking even the strongest of wills. 60s racism is so recent that there are survivors of its atrocities in the United States even today. Great books rarely make great movies; so you have every right to be sceptical going into this adaption \u2013 but like The Zone of Interest<\/i> it sidesteps the curse in favour of telling a memorable adaption of Whitehead\u2019s work. It is Ross\u2019 debut fiction feature but he has worked in the documentary field before with Hale County This Morning, This Evening<\/i>, which explains the authenticity of this approach \u2013 it feels real, lived in and honest \u2013 there\u2019s no fake Hollywood grandstanding here \u2013 it all feels heartbreakingly true. Out of all of the best picture frontrunners it’s likely to be the best one – which is why it probably won’t end up on the final shortlist. <\/p>\n

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var authorcode=’MJ’;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Nickel Boys is the adaption of Colson Whitehead\u2019s novel of the same name, from the author of The Underground Railroad. It\u2019s a harrowing, true-story inspired novel of a boy who gets in the wrong car on a lift to college only to find it\u2019s been stolen, and gets arrested by the police before being sent to a reform school, that\u2019s essentially prison. Segregated by the racial divide and put in a harsher, more brutal school than the whites\u2019 only section, who get benefits of sport and other activities \u2013 Elwood bonds with kind veteran Turner, as we see the school from both boys unique first person POVs, alternating between them as we see the horror the school enacts on its subjects, both what is left said and what is left unsaid, both boys dreaming of a better future but being pessimistic about the present realities they live in. RaMell Ross\u2019 adaption of the book that saw Whitehead win the 2020 Pulitzer Prize is faithful, but ambitious. The system is rigged against both Turner and Elwood from the start, Hamish Linklater\u2019s ruthless schoolmaster tells the boys that they can show good character and work their way to the top and earn their freedom, but later scenes reveal that\u2019s not true, the system is rigged and other boys will find a way to tear you back down if not the staff themselves. The perspectives of Turner and Elwood are dived into and we get to see both encounters of their first meetings; the POV doesn\u2019t just change the camera viewpoint but also alters their character \u2013 we see Turner\u2019s pessimism drag down Elwood\u2019s initial optimism. Both characters show real depth, vulnerability and horror at what they\u2019re witnessing \u2013 Elwood\u2019s grandmother \u2013 played by the fantastic, brilliant Aujanue Ellis-Taylor – is turned away from greeting Elwood as he\u2019s locked up in a hospital at the wrong end of a beating, but she gives a present to Elwood \u2013 and a letter, giving renewed hopes of freedom. Turner doesn\u2019t hand over the letter, but perhaps out of guilt, fakes an illness to visit Elwood in the hospital. The style of the POV shooting gives the film an almost hypnotic perspective that\u2019s hard not to be drawn to, you end up experiencing everything *with* the characters rather than sat back and watching them. But also \u2013 an alternative take – it captures the world as it is remembered, rather than seen \u2013 these are Elwood\u2019s memories, as we see mid-2000s Elwood let his trauma consume him and overwhelm him as he meets a surviving Nickel graduate in a bar \u2013 learning what happened and doing alright, but not spectacular, for himself. This is perhaps the most tragic of it all, incredibly poignant in a New York bar \u2013 the scenes between Daveed Diggs and Craig Tate make for arguably, the best-acted performance of the entire past year. There are echoes of a sinister nature here \u2013 The Nickel Boys recalls that of The Zone of Interest at times in its subject matter and its filmography, and the story subject vitally important and quintessentially American. It\u2019s a major, major understanding once you get used to its POV \u2013 one of remembrance, what is remembered and what is not. What is understood only when you\u2019re older. The film is immersive, intense and moving; capable of breaking even the strongest of wills. 60s racism is so recent that there are survivors of its atrocities in the United States even today. Great books rarely make great movies; so you have every right to be sceptical going into this adaption \u2013 but like The Zone of Interest it sidesteps the curse in favour of telling a memorable adaption of Whitehead\u2019s work. It is Ross\u2019 debut fiction feature but he has worked in the documentary field before with Hale County This Morning, This Evening, which explains the authenticity of this approach \u2013 it feels real, lived in and honest \u2013 there\u2019s no fake Hollywood grandstanding here \u2013 it all feels heartbreakingly true. Out of all of the best picture frontrunners it’s likely to be the best one – which is why it probably won’t end up on the final shortlist. var authorcode=’MJ’;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":695,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spirit-of-service.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spirit-of-service.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spirit-of-service.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spirit-of-service.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spirit-of-service.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=693"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/spirit-of-service.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":696,"href":"https:\/\/spirit-of-service.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693\/revisions\/696"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spirit-of-service.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spirit-of-service.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spirit-of-service.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spirit-of-service.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}