Dir. RaMell Ross
2024 | 140 mins | USA
Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Hamish Linklater, Fred Hechinger, Daveed Diggs

Showing Times

• Sat 08 Feb: 5.45pm
• Mon 10 Feb: 5.15pm
• Wed 12 Feb: 8.15pm

Adapted from Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Nickel Boys focuses on the story of Elwood (Ethan Herisse), a black teen sent to the Nickel Academy (based on a notorious real-life institution). Despite the school’s cruelty, he makes a connection with Turner (Brandon Willis) as they find a way to squirrel hope against the odds. As the former students reconnect later in life, we are witnesses not only to the scars left by their youth, but also the healing power of human connection.

Reminiscent of the granular attention lavished by Barry Jenkins on his protagonists in Moonlight, Nickel Boys is a sophisticated take on topics too easy to gloss with cliché. Ross, a fine art photographer as well as filmmaker, finds entirely visual means to tell not only what happened, but also how it felt, in so doing finding a new language to speak about the long shadow of trauma. However, the film is thoughtfully moral about how it depicts the moments that define a life, pushing the painful to the margins, just as its characters do.

BBFC Rating

Rated 12A – abusive behaviour, racism, moderate violence, threat, strong language