Showtimes January 31 - February 6:

RaMell Ross’s Nickel Boys is not a film to watch passively. It demands engagement, understanding, and empathy from its audience, much like the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Colson Whitehead on which it’s based. Through emotionally charged storytelling and daring visuals that deliver its story in first-person perspective, the film immerses viewers in the Jim Crow South and in the horrors of the Nickel Academy. A fictional reform school, the academy is modeled after the real-life Dozier School for Boys, which was notorious for its abusive treatment of students. One of the central characters, Elwood Curtis, finds his college dreams shattered when he’s falsely accused of a crime and sentenced to do time there. Clinging to an optimistic worldview, he strikes up a friendship with Turner, a fellow teen who dispenses fundamental tips for survival. As they navigate the systemic abuse and dehumanization the Nickel Academy administrators dole out, RaMell Ross and his director of photography, Jomo Fray, ensure the audience doesn’t just watch the story but experiences it through the eyes of the two protagonists. From warm memories of childhood to the stolen car that seals Elwood’s fate to the mirrored ceiling reflecting fleeting moments of connection, the cinematography is haunting and poetic. A feat of full-bodied immersion, Nickel Boys creates a reality that reaches out to your soul and never lets go.

(US / 2024 / Direced by RaMell Ross)
PG-13 / 2 hr 20 min