Nickel Boys Parent Guide

Despite the stifling racism of rural Florida in the early 60s, Elwood Curtis (Ethan Herisse) has a lot of opportunities. He excels in high school, and with the encouragement of his grandmother, Hattie (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) starts taking free advanced courses from the local college. His dreams are blasted, however, when he’s wrongly arrested for stealing a car and sent to Nickel Academy, a reform school for boys.

Nickel is blatantly segregated, with team-building activities and large, handsome brick mansions for the white kids, and back-breaking agricultural labor, beatings, and run-down dormitories for the black kids. The injustice rankles Elwood, but he soon learns that attracting attention at Nickel is a good way to get hurt. Luckily, he finds a friend in fellow student Turner (Brandon Wilson), and the two find a way to survive Nickel – for now. But not everyone is so lucky.

This film is told from a first-person point of view, with the camera essentially occupying a character – usually Elwood or Turner, but on rare occasions somebody else – and that means you see what that character sees. If Elwood’s staring at his shoes during a conversation, then you’ll be getting real familiar with Elwood’s shoes. These viewpoints are also intercut with the characters’ dreams and memories, along with a few flash-forwards. It can be easy to get lost if you’re not paying attention, and at nearly two-and-a-half hours in length, you’ll need to pick your bathroom breaks carefully.

The first-person camera work is unusual but it is, for the most part, very effective at forcibly immersing the audience into the story. There’s a different sense of things from that perspective. Sometimes it feels a little gimmicky, but most of the time, I barely noticed it. The camera work is usually smooth, but that first person perspective can be a little nauseating, and if you’re prone to motion sickness, you might find yourself feeling a little green in the gills.

Nickel Boys is worth a little queasiness. Frankly, the horrors these boys experience are more than enough to turn your stomach on their own, so you’re not even going to notice the camera work. This isn’t a fun film, but it tells a powerful story and tells it well.

Parents and teachers should note that this is not a good choice for younger children – the violence and the profanity are just too intense, and more to the point, the harrowing nature of the plot is better suited to older teens. You’re going to need some historical context to appreciate what’s going on, but the film will also enrich your sense of this piece of history. It’s hard to get more involved in the story than living right behind your protagonist’s eyes.