Nickel Boys

A stirring follow-up to his directorial debut Hale County This Morning, This Evening, RaMell Ross’ adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel is a biting, visually adventurous coming-of-age story set in Jim Crow-era Florida. Elwood (Ethan Herisse) is an idealistic Black high schooler whose aims of attending college are upended when racist law officials falsely accuse and then convict him of a crime, pulling him away from the loving arms of his grandmother (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor). At Nickel Academy, an abusive reformatory school, Elwood befriends a world-weary Turner (Brandon Wilson). Arrestingly gorgeous and daringly immersive, Ross effortlessly switches decades—the story spans the 1960s to the 2010s and changes perspectives. As it swims through memories, traumas, friendships, archival footage, and moments of defiance, Ross’ film offers a radical gaze at the perils of Black boyhood. (Telluride Film Festival)