Review: The best film of 2024 hits Bay Area theaters this week

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...