Nickel Boys

2024 2h 20m EN

👍

6.6

SOLID

★6.6TMDB · 382

DramaHistory

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Chronicles the powerful friendship between two young Black teenagers navigating the harrowing trials of reform school together in Florida.

“Some stories are better left unspoiled.”

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Cast

Ethan Herisse
Elwood
Brandon Wilson
Turner
Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor
Hattie
Hamish Linklater
Spencer
Gralen Bryant Banks
Blakeley
Fred Hechinger
Harper
Jimmie Fails
Mr. Hill
Luke Tennie
Griff

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: RaMell Ross
Writers: Joslyn Barnes, RaMell Ross, Jesse Michael Owen
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 7

MONEY

Did you know

Earned back only 13% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 7

ERA

Did you know

Released 2 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by RaMell Ross, shot by Jomo Fray. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Alex Somers. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Nicholas Monsour shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 7

CAST

Did you know

Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 7

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt23055660 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

Cinephile deep dive

The take

RaMell Ross directs. Jomo Fray behind the camera. Alex Somers scores. Nicholas Monsour cuts. A commercial under-performer on release. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Earned back only 13% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.
2Released 2 years ago.
3Directed by RaMell Ross, shot by Jomo Fray. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Alex Somers. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor Nicholas Monsour shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor carry the top of the cast.
7IMDB entry: tt23055660 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
8Classified under 30 themes, including "florida", "new york city", "sexual abuse", "based on novel or book".

The technical file

Cinematography: Jomo Fray
Original score: Alex Somers
Editing: Nicholas Monsour
Production design: Nora Mendis
Costume design: Brittany Loar
Makeup / hair: Hailey Authement
VFX supervisor: Vico Sharabani
Sound: Daniel Timmons
Stunt coordinator: Tim Bell
Runtime: 140 min · 2h 20m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $23,200,000
Box office: $3,016,380
Return: 13% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: Nickel Boys (2024)

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RaMell Ross

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Brent Marchant2025-01-09
★ 4/10
The artistic choices a director makes while working on a film often contribute much to the success or failure of the finished project. When these decisions aptly suit the nature of the production, they can transform a commendable picture into a cinematic masterpiece. But, when they fail at this, they can unduly get in the way, and such is the case with this debut narrative feature from writer-director RaMell Ross. Based on the 2020 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Colson Whitehead, the film tells the story of two young Black men, Ellwood (Ethan Herisse) and Turner (Brandon Wilson), who reside at the Nickel Academy, a fictional Florida reform school based on the infamous Dozier School for Boys, an institution known for its notoriously abusive treatment. Set in the 1960s against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement, “Nickel Boys” depicts the horrendous atrocities inflicted upon the two friends and other “academy” residents, brutality that included acts of physical and sexual abuse, as well as the mysterious “disappearances” of those who fail to abide by the facility’s strict rules. This is obviously an important and troubling story, one that desperately needs to be told. But, despite the picture’s fictional treatment of a fact-based tale, the impact of the story is severely diluted in this anemic screen adaptation, primarily due to the filmmaker’s attempt at wrongheadedly trying to turn it into some kind of cinematic art project. Much like the director’s inexplicably Oscar-nominated documentary feature “Hale County This Morning, This Evening” (2018), this release is seriously burdened by an array of unsuitable cinematography choices, some of which are employed unevenly, some of which add nothing particularly meaningful and others that are just plain odd. When combined with the picture’s poorly penned screenplay – one rife with redundant, predictable sequences and tediously dull dialogue that tries to pass itself off as more profound than it genuinely is – viewers are left with an overlong, lackluster narrative that significantly waters down the relevance of the events being chronicled here and that could have easily pruned about 30 minutes from its excessive 2:20:00 runtime. In fact, were it not for the fine performance of Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as Ellwood’s loving grandmother, there’s not much else worth watching in this exercise of style over substance. Indeed, how this offering has managed to capture the attention of the critics’ community is truly beyond me. An incensing tale like this deserves much better than what’s on offer in this disappointing slog, yet another of 2024’s disappointing celluloid failures.
CinemaSerf2025-02-05
★ 7/10
There are two really engaging performances on offer here as Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson deliver a powerful indictment of a Florida school for boys. Induced there with promises of innovative educational practices and no exorbitant fees, these lads arrive to discover that what they are attending is little better than a prison. Governed by brutality, starvation and violence, the boys have to conform to the demands of their boss “Spencer” (Hamish Linklater) or else life won’t be for the living. It’s worth pointing out that this isn’t just a school for black kids, all shapes and sizes are used and abused here and even if the authorities do decide to make a rudimentary visit, nobody ever dares to step out of line. It’s told using a combination of timelines, so there’s not so much actual jeopardy for the two characters, but what we do see is just how each struggled to come to terms with their predicament in different ways, yet always managing to provide support for the other. As we build to the conclusion, the true extent of the horrors inflicted on these students becomes more appreciable and the production starts to mingle the drama with real-life photography, statistics and more abstract imagery that proves intangibly effective at illustrating just how messed up people could be after a childhood/youth spent in fear. It takes it’s time which at times can prove frustrating, but in the end I reckon RaMell Ross manages to pick his way through this emotional minefield carefully and poignantly and it’s a tough, but worthwhile, watch.
r96sk2025-03-02
★ 7/10
<em>'Nickel Boys'</em> is too slow paced and overly stylistic for my personal liking, but there is no doubting it has quality. I can understand the praise it has received, it's just not overly for me. A good film it still is, I don't have any major negatives despite the mild cons noted above. The performances of Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson are strong enough, admittedly I didn't really find much to connect with them aside from their predicament. The forced perspective that the movie is portrayed via doesn't help with that, as interesting a concept as it is. How I view it solely as a film doesn't really matter anyway, because it is good to see this get so much attention - if only to shed light on the harrowing reform school that the story is based upon. It's disturbing how many of those sorta places exist/ed around the world. Awful.