nickel boy Adapted from the novel of the same name by Colson Whitehead, written by underground railway. A harrowing novel inspired by a true story, a boy gets into the wrong car on the elevator to college, only to discover it has been stolen and is beaten by the police before being sent to a reform school (essentially prison) Arrest story. Segregated along racial lines, the school was harsher and crueler than the white-only section, who benefited from sports and other activities—Elwood formed a bond with kind-hearted veteran Turner, as we learn from The school is seen from the unique first-person perspective of both boys, alternating between them as we see the horrors the school exhibits in its subjects, both spoken and unsaid, the dreams both boys have. hope for a better future but are pessimistic about the reality of their current lives.
RaMell Ross’s adaptation of Whitehead’s 2020 Pulitzer Prize-winning book is faithful but ambitious. The system is rigged against Turner and Elwood from the start, with Hamish Linklater’s ruthless headmaster telling the boys they can show good character, work their way to the top and win their freedom, but then The scenes show that this isn’t true, that the system is rigged and if it’s not the staff themselves, the other boys will find a way to take you down. Delving deeper into Turner and Elwood’s point of view, we see what happened to them when they first met; the POV not only changes the camera’s perspective, but also their characters – we see Turner’s pessimism drag him down Elwood’s initial optimism.
Both characters show real depth, vulnerability and horror at what they’re witnessing – Elwood’s grandmother – played by the wonderful, talented Ojanu Ellis-Taylor – is killed in Elwood’s death She refused to say hello to Guan while he was beaten in the hospital. Turner did not hand over the letter, but, perhaps out of guilt, he pretended to be ill and visited Elwood in the hospital. The POV shooting style gives the film an almost hypnotic perspective that’s hard not to be drawn in, and you end up experiencing everything with the characters rather than sitting back and watching them.
And – in another way – it captures the world as remembered, not as seen – these are Elwood’s memories, as we see them, in the mid-2000s, when Elwood When he meets a surviving Nickel graduate at a bar, his trauma consumes him and overwhelms him – understanding what happened and doing well for himself, but not great. It’s perhaps the most tragic scene of them all, and it’s incredibly poignant in a New York bar – the scene between Daveed Diggs and Craig Tate is arguably the best-performed of the past year Performance. There are echoes of the nature of evil here— nickel boy recall area of interest Sometimes the story themes are crucial and quintessentially American in their themes and cinematic productions. This is a very, very important thing to understand once you get used to the perspective of it – memory, what is remembered and what is not remembered. What you can only understand when you get older.
The film is immersive, tense and touching; it can break even the strongest will. The racism of the 1960s was so recent that there are still survivors of its atrocities in the United States to this day. Great books rarely make for great movies; so you have every right to be skeptical of this adaptation – but like area of interest It eschews damnation in favor of unforgettable adaptations of Whitehead’s works. This is Roth’s feature film debut, but he has previously worked in documentaries Hall County This Morning Tonightwhich explains the authenticity of the approach – it feels real, lived, and honest – there’s no fake Hollywood grandstanding here – it all feels heartbreakingly real. Of all the Best Picture front-runners, it’s probably the best one – which is why it probably won’t end up on the shortlist.
