Elwood (Ethan Herisse) is an idealistic Black high school student in Jim Crow-era Florida whose dreams of attending college are derailed when racist law officials falsely accuse and then convict him of a crime, taking him away from his beloved grandmother Hattie (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor). At Nickel Academy, a reformatory school, Elwood forms a close friendship with fellow inmate Turner (Brandon Wilson), who has adopted a cynical attitude in response to the abusive treatment at the hands of the corrupt administrators.

RaMell Ross’s adaptation ofThe Nickel Boys, Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, tells a powerful coming-of-age story in a formally audacious manner; the film plays out as a series of first-person impressions, the perspective switching periodically between characters as the story progresses from the 1960s to the 2010s. The effect is immersive, inventive, and deeply moving.

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