Nickel Boys (2025)

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Nickel Boys is a gut-wrenching, beautifully made film that lingers in your mind long after the credits roll. Based on Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, it tells the story of Elwood Curtis (Ethan Herisse), an ambitious, straight-laced teenager in 1960s Florida, who has his life upended when a single mistake lands him at the Nickel Academy—a so-called reform school that's layout is eerily reminiscent of a concentration camp.

Inside, he befriends Turner (Brandon Wilson), a kid who’s seen enough to know that idealism is a dangerous thing in a place like this. The film follows their attempts to survive in an unforgiving environment where cruelty is part of the daily routine, and hope is ever dwindling.

Director RaMell Ross' decision to shoot in first-person perspective is particularly effective, putting you right in the middle of Nickel Academy’s grim, claustrophobic world. Every shot is meticulously crafted, and there are moments of quiet beauty too—small, human touches that make you care deeply about Elwood and Turner, which only makes the film’s emotional gut punches hit even harder.

The performances are phenomenal across the board. Ethan Herisse plays Elwood with a heart-breaking sincerity—you see the optimism in his eyes, and you see it slowly fade as the film goes on. Brandon Wilson’s Turner is the perfect counterpoint, a kid who’s been forced to accept the world for what it is, and almost accepts the horrendous things that are unfolding in front of him as simply standard; the fact that there's truth in his assumptions makes things all the more terrifying. Their dynamic is the emotional core of the film, and it’s what keeps you gripped even as the story edges towards some truly devastating revelations. Despite the style of the film reminding immediately of television's Peep Show (2003-2015), Nickel Boys is probably about as far from that show as it's possible to get. There's also shades of Steve McQueen's 12 Years A Slave (2013) and although RaMell Ross' film might not have any specific individual moment of terror in the way McQueen's powerhouse perhaps does, it's no less affecting.

What makes Nickel Boys so powerful is that it doesn’t just focus on suffering for the sake of it; it’s undoubtedly a film about injustice, but it’s also about survival, friendship, and the cost of holding onto hope in a world determined to crush it. Like many before it, Nickel Boys is especially distressing because of the truth of much of the narrative, if not quite the masterpiece many have claimed. 8.3/10

Nickel Boys is not an easy watch, but it's unforgettable -and without doubt one of the most powerful films of the year, if not quite the out and out masterpiece that many have claimed.