Nickel Boys
RaMell Ross’s extraordinary realization of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel about two Black teenagers who become wards of a barbaric juvenile reformatory in Jim Crow–era Florida adopts an ingenious visual approach to the novel’s exercise in subjectivity. Ross’s first fiction feature confirms his status as a visionary cinematic artist.
Rare is the film of a major book that maintains the power and precision of its source material while also generating its own singular aesthetic. Yet RaMell Ross’s extraordinary realization of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize–winning 2019 novel, about two Black teenagers who become wards of a barbaric juvenile reformatory in Jim Crow–era Florida, achieves just this. In breakout performances that cut to the bone, Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson play Elwood and Turner, whose close friendship helps sustain their hope even as the horrors mount around them at the Nickel Academy, which becomes a microcosm of American racism in the mid-20th century. Ross, whose unforgettable Oscar-nominated documentary Hale County This Morning, This Evening (Closing Night of New Directors/New Films, 2018) portrayed an Alabama community in moments of revelatory intimacy, has here fashioned a film of equal daring and intensity, buoyed by expressive, shallow-focus cinematography by Jomo Fray (All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt), pinpoint-precise editing by Nicholas Monsour (NOPE), and deeply felt supporting performances from Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Hamish Linklater, and Daveed Diggs. Inspired by actual events, this harrowing tale comes to vivid life via an ingenious visual approach that brilliantly adapts the novel’s exercise in subjectivity. Ross’s Nickel Boys sets the beauty of the natural world against the cruel realities of American racism, and confirms its maker’s status as a visionary cinematic artist. An Orion Pictures/Amazon MGM Studios release.
Recommended Film Comment reading:
Sign up to the Film Comment Letter for NYFF62 coverage and more original film criticism year-round!
Read More
Ildikó Enyedi and Tony Leung on Their Venice Award-Winning Silent Friend
This week we’re excited to present a conversation with Silent Friend director Ildikó Enyedi and lead actor Tony Leung, moderated by TIME film critic Stephanie Zacharek.
FLC Presents “Elaine May,” June 26–July 2, with May in Person to Celebrate 50th Anniversary of Mikey and Nicky
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the release of Elaine May’s emotionally potent Mikey and Nicky, May and producer Julian Schlossberg will be in person at FLC to present a 4K restoration of the film, which May supervised herself.
Apply Now for 2026 FLC Artists and Critics Academies
Applications are now open through June 18 for the 2026 Film at Lincoln Center Academy Programs.