After debuting at Telluride last week, Nickel Boys has received nothing but praise (and some Oscar predictions) from critics who are calling the unconventional film “staggeringly beautiful.” The movie will get a theatrical release next month before heading to Prime, and the stunning first trailer has been unveiled.
Nickel Boys, directed by RaMell Ross, is based on the 2019 novel of the same name by Colson Whitehead. It is a fictional take on the real-life Dozier School For Boys, a reform school located in Florida which operated under abusive and violent conditions for over 100 years. Through investigations since its closure, many unmarked graves have been discovered on school grounds.
The film is from a unique first-person point-of-view, the story follows Elwood, a young Black man who is falsely accused of being an accomplice to stealing a car and is sent away to the fictional Nickel Academy where he befriends Turner. Ross explained the complex filming process (“shot entirely on long-lenses, 50mm and 80mm”) to Vanity Fair:
The film is conceived as all one-ers. In one scene, we shot everything from Elwood’s perspective, and then everything from Turner’s—one from the first hour, and then the other for the second. Very rarely did we shoot both perspectives on a scene, though, because of the way it was written and scripted. We don’t always go back and forth. So it’s shot like a traditional film, except the other character is not there. They’re just asked to look at a specific point in the camera … the choreography is quite difficult.
Elwood is played by Ethan Herisse, while Brandon Wilson plays Turner. Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Hamish Linklater, Fred Hechinger and Jimmie Fails also star in the drama, which will have a limited theatrical release on October 25, before streaming on Prime Video. Check out the trailer above.
