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Movie Review: ‘Nickel Boys’ is a knockout, one of the most powerful films of the year

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Movie Review: ‘Nickel Boys’ is a knockout, one of the most powerful films of the year

A movie shot in first person sounds like a gimmick. Part of the magic of filmed storytelling is accepting that something can be from someone’s point of view and yet also from a distance. Using the camera as a character’s actual eyes is the domain of university students and niche experimental filmmakers. In a commercial film, it’s to be deployed only in very limited doses.

And yet, with “Nickel Boys,” filmmaker RaMell Ross not only commits to the idea but delivers one of the most powerful films of the year in the process — a lyrical, heartbreaking and haunting journey into the darkness of a brutal reform school in the Jim Crow South.

Ross and co-writer Joslyn Barnes weren’t working from scratch, but Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer-winning novel about two teenage boys, Elwood and Turner, who become friends while wards of a juvenile reform school in Florida. It’s called the Nickel Academy in the novel and the film, which is fiction, but based on the horrific abuses at the very real Dozier School for Boys, in the Florida panhandle, where boys were beaten, raped and killed. Some of the bodies were shipped back to their homes. Others were buried in unmarked graves that only have recently come to light.

The haunting truth of the broader picture, the all-too-recent displays of inhumanity and racism, looms over every frame. “Nickel Boys” is not exploitation porn, however. In fact, when one brutal beating does happen, Ross directs his gaze elsewhere: A wall, a shoe, a nervous hand, the corner of a bible. The sounds from the other room, the cracking of the whip and the grunts are undeniable. As in “The Zone of Interest,” we don’t need to see it to feel its impact.

This is more of a memory piece than anything else, a reconciling of unspeakable traumas and human resilience through the eyes of two boys. Elwood (Ethan Herisse) is our way in. We see his youth in Tallahassee, growing up with his grandmother Hattie (an especially impactful Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor ) who is as playful as she is protective of this young boy who has only her. He’s smart and attuned to the civil rights movement at large, listening in on the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speeches and impressing his teachers, one of whom recommends him for classes at a technical college. He hitches a ride on his way with a man in a slick suit and car, not knowing that it was stolen. When the man is caught Elwood, the innocent, gets sent to Nickel.

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“You’re lucky to be in Nickel,” a younger white employee ( Fred Hechinger ) says to Elwood early on. He’s just received his draft notice and might even really believe it. While he seems like perhaps he’s more friend than jailor, his truest nature will be revealed down the line. Others are more sniveling and obvious, like Hamish Linklater as the school’s administrator who is more than ready to dole out violent punishments with his own hands.

It’s not all Black kids in Nickel, but there’s a segregated hierarchy with the students, one that’s neatly tucked away when inspectors come to the grounds as the employees and administrators scurry to present a good face. Even they knew that their practices are something to be ashamed of.

Perhaps the most striking aspect of the first-person camera is its attention to details. It’s not acting like a camera, but a person who doesn’t always see everything “important.” Sometimes it’s one’s own hand, sometimes shoes, tattered shirts, darkness, or a puff of smoke.

And while we’d gotten glimpses of Elwood before, in a camera booth with a girlfriend, the first time we really see him is through Turner (Brandon Wilson) one fateful day in the cafeteria. Turner is laid back and a little world weary, an orphan and a realist counterpart to Elwood’s hopeful idealism. Though opposite in sensibility, these two stick together, finding light and joy even in their hellish surroundings. The camera even starts to shift between them — when they’re looking at one another, they’re also looking through the lens, at us. There are also flashes forward to a man at a computer ( Daveed Diggs ), seen mostly from behind, reading about the discoveries of unmarked graves on the grounds.

The threads do come together, but it requires a bit of patience and giving yourself over to the film, which is both formally and emotionally eye-opening. Adapting great literature can sometimes send filmmakers running towards the conventional; Thank goodness Ross charted his own path instead.

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“Nickel Boys,” an Amazon MGM release in limited theaters Friday, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for “violent content, some strong language, racial slurs, smoking, racism and thematic material.” Running time: 140 minutes. Four stars out of four.

Movie Reviews

I Know Exactly How You Die – Review | Indie Slasher | Heaven of Horror

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I Know Exactly How You Die – Review | Indie Slasher | Heaven of Horror

Watch I Know Exactly How I Die on VOD

The director of I Know Exactly How I Die is Alexandra Spieth, who ensures a tight pace and some gorgeous shots. She previously directed Stag and created and starred in the web-series [Blank] My Life. The screenplay comes from Mike Corey, and I do really like the plot and evolution of this story.

As already mentioned, the star Rushabh Patel is the executive producer. As a result, this movie is billed as “Rushabh Patel’s I Know Exactly How I Die“, which I am not a fan of. Unless Rushabh Patel is famous in ways I am not familiar with – nor is IMDb, as this is his first and so far only credit there.

This is like people wondering if Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen is connected to Stranger Things, because the media keeps referring to it as a new show from The Duffer Brothers. Sure, they produced it, but Haley Z. Boston created the original story and wrote the screenplay. And she’s not even a newcomer.

Okay, rant over, but I just don’t understand the marketing and press decisions of it all.

Anyway, as already mentioned, the practical effects in I Know Exactly How I Die are gorgeous. Any slasher fan should enjoy the concept of the plot as well as those amazing practical effects. And yet, you will have to endure a little terrible CGI, but this is an indie production, so budget restraints come into play. Of course, so does choosing the best talent, and that did not happen for CGI here!

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I Know Exactly How You Die is out on VOD from April 7, 2026. You can rent it on Digital HD from your preferred platform, including Prime Video and Fandango at Home. The film will also be available on DVD.

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‘Super Mario’ fans ignore weak reviews and send sequel to $372.5 million global box office debut, biggest opening of the year for a studio film | Fortune

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‘Super Mario’ fans ignore weak reviews and send sequel to 2.5 million global box office debut, biggest opening of the year for a studio film | Fortune

Mixed reviews didn’t dissuade mass audiences from buying tickets to the “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” which scored the biggest opening of the year for a Hollywood movie. The Illumination and Nintendo co-production earned $130.9 million over the weekend and a massive $190.1 million in its first five days in North American theaters, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Universal Pictures released the sequel globally on Wednesday, capitalizing on kids’ spring break vacations in the week leading up to the Easter holiday. With an estimated $182.4 million from 80 overseas markets, the film is looking at an astronomical $372.5 million debut — the latest hit for the PG rating. Mexico is leading the international bunch with $29.1 million from 5,136 screens, followed by the U.K. and Ireland with $19.7 million.

The animated sequel, Illumination CEO Christopher Meledandri’s 16th movie in 16 years, is the industry’s biggest debut since “Avatar: Fire and Ash” launched over Christmas. The Chinese movie “Pegasus 3,” which was not a Motion Picture Association release, has the slight edge for the 2026 global record, however.

It’s also a dip from the first film, which opened to $204 million domestically during the same five-day time frame in 2023 ($147 of that was from Friday, Saturday and Sunday). “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” went on to be the second biggest movie of 2023, with over $1.3 billion in box office receipts.

“The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” which features returning voice actors Chris Pratt, Jack Black, Anya Taylor-Joy and Charlie Day, had a massive footprint in the U.S. and Canada, where it played in 4,252 theaters, including 421 IMAX and 1,345 premium large format screens. It made $15 million from the IMAX screens alone.

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“It’s exactly the kind of broad, crowd-pleasing release that brings people into theatres,” AMC Chairman and CEO Adam Aron said in a statement.

It also cost around $110 million to make, not including marketing and promotion expenses. But it arrived on a wave of less-than-stellar reviews. Its Rotten Tomatoes score is currently sitting at a lousy 40%. Ticket buyers were more enthusiastic, however.

The family audience gave the movie five out of five stars according to PostTrak exit polls, while general audiences gave it four stars and an A- on CinemsScore. Audiences skewed male (61%) overall, although when it came to families attending there were slightly more moms (52%) than dads.

“These kind of audience reaction scores just point to a ridiculously strong run, not only throughout the spring, but likely into the summer as well,” said Jim Orr, Universal’s president of domestic distribution.

“The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” will open in Japan later this month.

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Last year, the first weekend in April hosted the launch of another video game blockbuster, “A Minecraft Movie,” which had a bigger three-day debut ($162.8 million) but didn’t have a “Project Hail Mary” in a strong second place, meaning the weekend overall is still up around 5%.

As expected, “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” ended the two-week reignof the Ryan Gosling-led sci-fi hit “Project Hail Mary,” which landed in second its third weekend in theaters where it added $30.7 million, bringing its running domestic total to $217.2 million. Worldwide, it’s made $420.7 million to date.

Third place went to A24’s provocative new movie “The Drama,” starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, which made an estimated $14.4 million from 3,087 theaters. The film’s stars have been on a massive and charming press blitz to promote their R-rated movie about a engaged couple grappling with an unnerving revelation, which cost a reported $28 million to produce. The reveal has drummed up a fair amount of cultural discourse. While reviews have been more positive than not (82% on Rotten Tomatoes), it got a less promising B CinemaScore.

“Hoppers” and “Reminders of Him” rounded out the top five. And the box office outlook looks bright overall, up around 30% from last year.

“There’s no better opening act for a great summer than a huge month of April powered by a mega blockbuster like the ‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,’” said Paul Dergarabedian, comscore’s head of marketplace trends.

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Top 10 movies by domestic box office

With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:

1.“The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” $130.9 million.

2.“Project Hail Mary,” $30.7 million.

3.“The Drama,” $14.4 million.

4.“Hoppers,” $5.8 million.

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5.“Reminders of Him,” $2.2 million.

6.“A Great Awakening,” $2.1 million.

7.“They Will Kill You,” $1.9 million.

8.“Dhurandhar The Revenge,” $1.9 million.

9.“Ready or Not 2: Here I Come,” $1.8 million.

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10.“Scream 7,” 915,000.

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Movie Review: THE YETI

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Movie Review: THE YETI
Rating: R Stars: Brittany Allen, Eric Nelsen, Jim Cummings, Christina Bennett Lind, Gene Gallerano, Linc Hand, Elizabeth Cappuccino, William Sadler, Corbin Bernsen Writers: Gene Gallerano & William Pisciotta Directors: Gene Gallerano & William Pisciotta Distributor: Well Go USA Entertainment Release Date: April 4, 2026 and April 8, 2026 (AMC theatrical); April 10, 2026 (digital) Written and directed by the team of Gene Gallerano & William Pisciotta, THE YETI is set in the ‘40s and aspires to look as though it was made in the ‘50s. Its style seems to be part of its reason for being. It’s agreeable as a […]Read On »
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