No matter how closely a film adaptation hews to its source material, the experience will always be uniquely different from page to screen. Nickel Boys, adapted from Colson Whitehead’s 2019 novel by documentarian RaMell Ross, underscored that fact as it opened the 62nd New York Film Festival on Saturday night. Even the decision to drop The from the film’s title, for example, seemingly one of the more minor changes made by Ross and his crew, is a crucial one for a story about the broad nature of identity. Nickel Boys may center around two distinct characters, but the intersection between them and the other boys at Nickel Academy is the real heart of both novel and film.
When Elwood Curtis (Ethan Herisse) happens to hop into the wrong car, he’s arrested and brought to the sadistic juvenile reform school Nickel Academy. There he meets Turner (Brandon Wilson), a young man with a very different outlook on their similar circumstances. While Elwood sees a world ripe for change, spurred by the ideals of Martin Luther King Jr., his friend largely opts for survival by keeping his head down. As Elwood seeks the beauty in the world, he and Turner are forced to reckon with the abuse of Nickel for the rest of their lives.
Motion State Review 