Nickel Boys is a film based on the 2019 book The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead. It’s inspired by The Florida School for Boys, a reform school that gained a reputation for its horrific treatment of its students. The first-person point-of-view filming makes the film very immersive and unique, which engages the audience to be the eyes of Elwood Curtis, portrayed by Ethan Herisse, and Turner, portrayed by Brandon Wilson. The two teenagers must learn to survive in a brutal institution during the 1960s South.

The scenes in Nickel Boys are shot as oners and from the first-person point of view of mainly Elwood and Turner. As the audience looks through their eyes, they will witness friendship, love, fear, and horror.

“I think that all the scenes that we did were all oners,” Herisse tells Nerd Reactor. “They’re all one takes, which really allowed Brandon and I to really get immersed and lost in those scenes. It didn’t feel like we were talking to a camera, [although] we had a camera rig on our chest. We were able to really dive into it and let all of that fade away, which services the dark subject matter that we’re exploring, because we’re able to be honest, despite how cruel it all is. And then they call cut, and we’re like, ‘Whoa, yeah, this is pretty cool. At least in the moments where we were wearing the rigs.'”

The film’s structure is similar to exploring a slice of life from the perspective of the characters. It doesn’t follow the storytelling of traditional films, and that makes the audience feel more like they are part of that world, good or bad.

“We very much get to live in these scenes,” Wilson said. “Some of these scenes are five minutes long, so we get to live in that whole moment, which is rare on a film set. You’re kind of just like, ‘You do three lines and you cut, and then you cut and get a different coverage.’ But we got to live in this moment. I felt like we were in it.”

Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor portrays Hattie, Elwood’s grandmother, who tries her best to get her grandson out of the institution.

“It’s American history, and it’s our history, and we have to confront it,” Ellis Taylor said of the importance of the film. “I mean, it’s a joy for me to be able to be a part of that kind of work, honestly.”

Jomo Fray has one of the most pivotal roles in the film as the cinematographer. Since it’s a different take on filmmaking, he had to become part of the characters as well.

“When Aunjanue is hugging the camera, it’s me she’s physically hugging,” Fray said. “When she’s hugging me, it’s not as Jomo, but she’s hugging me as Elwood. And how the camera is moving, I need to think about how would Elwood look at this moment. How would Elwood exist and channel it through my body? So there’s a way in which it doesn’t become me shooting a shot of Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor. It becomes me as Elwood hugging my grandmother. And that’s different.

“I think that there’s a way in which we all shoot the people we love in a fundamentally different way than anyone else on Earth. So I think that what this project necessitated was that I, or our operator Sam Allison or RaMell, we needed to have a vulnerability and openness on set because it wasn’t just the actor anymore. It was our scene partner, it was our grandmother, it was our friend. And I think that changes the way that you make images, and I think that’s something I’ll fundamentally take with me moving forward.”

About Nickel Boys

Synopsis: Elwood Curtis’s college dream shatters alongside a two-lane Florida highway. Bearing the brunt of an innocent misstep, he’s sentenced to the netherworld of Nickel Academy, a brutal reformatory sunk deep in the Jim Crow South. He encounters another ward, the seen-it-all Turner. The two Black teens strike up an alliance: Turner dispensing fundamental tips for survival, Elwood, clinging to his optimistic worldview. Backdropped by the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement, Elwood and Turner’s existence appear worlds away from Rev. Martin Luther King’s burnished oratory. Despite Nickel’s brutality, Elwood strives to hold onto his humanity, awakening a new vision for Turner.

The film is directed by RaMell Ross and written by RaMell Ross & Joslyn Barnes. It’s based on the book The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead.

It’s produced by Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, David Levine and Joslyn Barnes and executive produced by Brad Pitt, Gabby Shepard, Emily Wolfe, Kenneth Yu and Chadwick Prichard. Alex Somers & Scott Alario are the film’s composers.

The cast includes Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Hamish Linklater, Fred Hechinger, Daveed Diggs, and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor.