Since attending an advanced screening of “Nickel Boys” in mid-November, I’ve seen numerous headlines and quotes touting its brilliance and naming it one of the best films of the year. Much of the praise heaped on the movie stems from the bold choice to shoot it in the first-person, with its two main figures alternating as the point-of-view character at different points. That decision — credited in the film’s production notes to its director, RaMell Ross, and his co-writer, Joslyn Barnes, who’s also a producer on the film — certainly helps “Nickel Boys” stand out even among other works exploring this country’s history of racism.
Here’s the thing: I found the approach largely distracting — I just couldn’t unsee actors staring right into the camera as they delivered their lines, however deftly — and sometimes disorienting. I genuinely hope I’m in the minority, as “Nickel Boys” — an adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 2019 novel, “The Nickel Boys” — tells a powerful story inspired by the horrific goings on over the years at the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, Florida .
The film begins as the story of Elwood, portrayed as a young boy by Ethan Cole Sharp but for most of the narrative by Ethan Herisse. Raised by his grandmother Hattie (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor of “The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat”) in the Jim Crow South, the young Black man is on his way to begin his college education when his lif.
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