Why ‘Nickel Boys’ Should Be the Best Film of 2024
Called it. Done. Maybe.
Dear Moviegoers,
With the 97th Academy Awards just a few hours away, it’s probably a silly time to go over 2024’s movies. As I’ve often said to friends, every year is a good year for film, and I believe that wholeheartedly. Call me a crazy romantic all you want, but I don’t care—this is how I feel, and I feel that I’m right. The only “fault” that I have with any given year is how tight the release schedule gets for award season releases.
This begins in the fall when critic considerations and organization lists are being both sought after and made up. So, a studio will put out the cream of their crop - so to speak - at this time, to stay as fresh as possible in our collective memories. However, not every critic can see everything or have access to anything, and not every city gets to screen such flicks in time for the end of any year.
Suffice to say, it’s a bummer.
As a voting member of a critic’s group, I’m extremely fortunate to receive some of these movies ahead of time and within the supposed comfort of my home office (bedroom). Sometimes, these films will be screened privately for us in a theater, and sometimes, we’ll have to press play ourselves. No matter how it’s done, we watch, absorb, and observe.
Is all this just to have award shows that use filtered filler for content, or so we can show off on Letterboxd? I like to think it’s about culture and community. I have to. I believe it—wholeheartedly.
Surely it is a silly time to go over the movies of the last year, but how about I pick one—THE one?
Filmmaker RaMell Ross, who has already played around with cinematic elements like perspective and genre in Hale County This Morning, This Evening, made not only the best film of the year but one of the greatest movies of this decade with Nickel Boys. The sheer technical achievement in its presentation and creation is unbelievable. Gobsmacked and bedazzled, I was left.
I watched this on the big screen thankfully, and I can’t imagine what would be lost in viewing this on a TV or computer. Nickel Boys has that immersive oompf that only happens in a movie theater and any chance to catch it that way should be secured. Of course, watch it however possible, as I could just be spouting entitlement.
The camera works as the eyes to the world, as the pathway to the soul, and as a trip and intrusion through memory. Certain compositions in the film, most from the direct visual perspective of two black male teenagers being held in a segregated “correctional school,” don’t just exist in the reality of the film, but in the emotional history of its main characters. Image and event associations bring up immediate reflections from the past, sometimes clouded in darkness, sometimes brought through light, sometimes as a sort of time travel, and sometimes implanted in their present-day gaze.
Some of the more extreme sequences, such as a brutal depiction of physical abuse, generate high anxiety and deep concern. Was it only because of how Nickel Boys was shot? Was it how upfront the camera gets to the trauma? Was it also how hard the sound design hits in these crushing moments? Yes to all, and that alone is startling. The story is compelling enough, but would most audiences, especially white ones, feel the pain as far as the movie takes it? Is it ok for the technique to take over the tale, at least sometimes?
Balance. Nickel Boys has that balance. Effects and affect. Holy cow, does it ever. 5/5
So why is it that the film isn’t a buzzed-about contender for its Best Picture award at the Oscars? Was a nomination just a participation trophy?
Nickel Boys should be the best film of the year, and well beyond the Academy’s voting process. How come we’re not talking about this movie more? The best of the brightest of Hollywood South productions fell aside because of its limited release.
Gatekeeping? Availability. I see no conspiracy in holding the film back, but rather just a poor and stale strategy for getting people to see it. By strategy, I mean none at all. Or maybe I mean that it was dumped out of ignorance. Or confusion. How can Nickel Boys be properly sold to the public?
I say roadshow. I say make seeing it something special. I say take a cha…
Oops. I almost made myself chuckle.
Bummer.
Sincerely Yours in Moviegoing,
⚜️🍿
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