Recxpectations: The Nickel Boys

The Nickel Boys (New Thing #3) is based on Colson Whitehead’s 2019 novel inspired by the horrific findings at the site of the Dozier School for Boys site in the early 2010’s. The film mostly takes place in the 1960s and flashes forward to modern day.

EXPECT: FIRST PERSON POV
The film shifts between the first-person POV of the two lead characters, the cynical Turner (who has learned to play the game to make things better for himself at the school) and Elwood, a young man who is yearning to change the world and is only in trouble because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I’m not sure how I feel about the first person approach - it definitely makes the film more interesting but I wondered if, at times, it didn’t create more of a separation. It never feels gimmicky but I’m not sure it really elevated things either.

DON’T EXPECT: FLOWERY DIALOGUE
The Nickel Boys is very much a slice-of-life type film, and the dialogue stays true to the locale and the characters. This isn’t an Aaron Sorkin film where, inexplicably, everyone speaks in snappy one-liners and eloquent monologues. It’s blunt and to the point.

EXPECT: AN ADMIRABLE FILM, NOT AN ENJOYABLE ONE
I mean, given the subject matter of brutality at the Boy’s School, it shouldn’t be a surprise that this film isn’t necessarily a “crowd pleaser” but - again, probably because I kind of bumped on the first-person POV approach - it was a film I appreciated more than I was moved by. There’s also a story element that emerges midway through the film that I didn’t think really worked to elevate things.

EXPECT: AN ART FILM
I don’t believe this is a film that will have much crossover appeal. I wouldn’t say that the film preaches to the choir, but it’s a film that will be beloved by the target audience and could fall flat for the mainstream audience and skeptics.