Movie review: RaMell Ross paints a powerful picture with 'Nickel Boys'

Once you realize it’s just a different way of telling a story – a way to force you to pay attention – you hop on and understand the situation much better than you ever could with a more traditional approach.

Ross uses his camera as another character, making you a part of the trauma.

Based on Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, “Nickel Boys” follows two boys who become friends at the Nickel Academy, a reform school where “survival of the fittest” is more than just a biology lesson. There, Elwood (Ethan Herisse) and Turner (Brandon Wilson) are constantly in the range finder of the school’s abusive administrators. Rather than work with them, the racist officials make their lives miserable and, ultimately, hunt them down. Graves filled with students who didn’t acquiesce litter the campus.

Meanwhile, others have no clue what’s going on. Among them: Elwood’s grandmother (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) who comes to visit and is denied a few moments of connection.

Director RaMell Ross's vision gives 'Nickel Boys' new perspective

Sadistic and cruel (it’s based on an actual Florida school), the Nickel Academy is where dreams die and racism becomes empowered.

Jomo Fray’s cinematography is key to conveying Ross’s concept. He doesn’t just frame people like they’re subjects in a documentary, he focuses on objects, too. That gives the film a poetic quality and helps you understand who’s who to whom.

Some actors – big name actors – are barely in the film because they’re not the focus of the camera. That’s brave – and vital to the conclusion Ross seeks.

While Wilson and Herisse are often seen head on, others linger in the background. Even Ellis-Taylor, who’s heartbreakingly good, often lingers in the film’s spaces.

When Ross sends his characters running, you can hear their heartbeats, feel their fear. He shoots from all angles (even on a bicycle) and visually creates something we haven’t seen before.

“Nickel Boys” is a tough watch – largely because we don’t want to admit this kind of activity happened – but it leaves an impression that goes beyond mere images.

Ellis-Taylor and Herisse are Oscar worthy.

And Ross? He’s a force to watch in all forms of filmmaking. “Nickel Boys” is a powerful introduction to the statements he can make with image and light. Remember this film.