Some films only need to be seen once to fully grasp the intentions and purpose of the filmmaker. “Nickel Boys,” RaMell Ross’ evocative adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, is not one of those films.
The film, which opens Jan. 3 in Bay Area theaters, is like a prism, constantly revealing a new and different angle as it proceeds.
Ross’ novel approach tells Whitehead’s tale, based on true events, about two young Black men stuck in a wretched juvenile Florida reformatory school...