Nickel Boys
Nickel Boys
A powerful friendship develops between two young African-American men as they navigate the harrowing trials of reform school together.
rg9400 reviewedFebruary 25, 2025
Nickel Boys honestly feels like something wholly novel, something I cannot find any touchstone to compare to. The movie is filmed from the perspective of two African American teenagers who are in a reform school during the Jim Crow era. And when I mean from the perspective of, I mean the movie is told from a first-person POV, where the camera acts as the literal embodiment of each character. When characters look down at their feet, the camera itself moves down. Turn their heads, the camera moves. This isn't the first time I've seen the first-person POV attempted. Action movies like Hardcore Henry have tried it before, but this is different. It is not a kinetic movie, it's a movie entirely driven by a subjective emotional experience. In between these scenes, the director meshes together real-life archival footage as interstitials, serving as connective tissue. The goal is to literally put you into the lives of these youth while also serving as a way to explore identity as the rest of the movie unravels. I have to admire the audacity of it. However, I really struggled watching it. The POV changes the way people perform, both the main characters as well as those in front of them. There's a degree of uncanniness to it all that didn't resonate with me. Similarly, the archival footage prevented me from getting immersed in the story, constantly feeling like it interrupted the story as it gained a rhythm. When the dust settled and I thought about the story, I do think it's a powerful story. Because of that and the unique way it is told, I do think the movie is noteworthy. It's just unfortunately not for me.