Hello film fans and welcome to Oscar week! Like I do every year, I’m going to review all of the movies up for Best Picture this year. Ten movies are nominated. I’ll do my best to get them all out before the big show. But that does mean some days you’ll get more than one review from me this week. Hope you don’t mind! With that out of the way, let’s get into the first nominated film I watched, Nickel Boys.

What is Nickel Boys about?

Nickel Boys is based on the book titled The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead. The book is fictional but based on the real life events of an abusive reform school called the Dozier School. It was the kind of school you’d find in segregated areas where utterly horrific acts of violence, up to murder, were perpetrated upon the kids forced to be there.

In the movie, we see the story of Elwood Curtis who is a good student who is accepted into a trade school. When he goes to the school for the first time, he gets a ride with a stranger who is pulled over by the police. While Elwood is innocent of any crime, he’s forced to go to a reform school for boys called the Nickel Academy. This school has two units, one for white boys and one for non-white boys. It’s obvious the white students are treated far more favorably but there is abuse all around.

While there, Elwood makes friends with a boy named Turner. The two are exposed to abuse and injustice and try to figure a way out of the academy. Things get dark and we see some flashbacks and flashes forward of both Elwood and Turner. Sometimes the shifting perspective is a little hard to follow.

The first person point of view

I have to mention the entire film is shot from a first person point of view. I’m of two minds about this. On the one hand, it feels visceral and you really do get into the head of the characters and feel like you are the one experiencing the story. On the other hand, it’s absolutely apparent that Ethan Herisse who plays Elwood and Brandon Wilson who plays Turner are delivering top notch performances. But you hardly see their faces and that seems like a shame to me.

While I think this is a good film, I’m not as sold on the first person experience as some critics were. It is a unique way to shoot a film but between that technique and the flashes forward and back, sometimes the story is hard to follow and lessens a bit of the impact of the story. And I do think this is an important story to tell. I just think in this case, the book may do a better job conveying it than the film.

I won’t spoil too much of the movie here but I will say there are moments that are seriously shocking and maybe they wouldn’t have worked as well if not in first person point of view. But I found watching this way a bit of an exercise in patience.

The acting is fantastic and it’s beautifully shot with some amazing cinematography and heavy editing work here. The score fits nicely but I don’t think it’s especially amazing. And the directing must have been difficult to do this kind of movie in a first person perspective.

The awards

This film has already been nominated (and won) a bunch of awards. But as far as the Oscars go, it’s only up for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay. I’m never good at predicting what will actually win the big awards. But if I had to put money on this (don’t put money on this based on what I say) I’d say this will not win Best Picture. It has a shot at Best Adapted Screenplay, especially considering the unique POV. But I don’t think that’s actually going to be enough to clench the win here.

In conclusion

While I absolutely think this is a story that should be told, I’m not sold on this film being the best way to tell it. The first person camera work is impressive but sometimes comes off as more of a gimmick than it should. But there is a lot of beautiful art to behold. And the acting is excellent. I just wanted to see more of it. I don’t think this one will be my favorite of the nominees but I’m certain it’s far from the worst one. If you saw this one, I’d be curious to know what you thought of the first person point of view. Let me know in the comments if you did.

Awardingly yours,

Slick Dungeon

P.S. Want to see what I thought of the Best Picture winner last year? Check out my review of Oppenheimer!