Nickel Boys

"Nickel Boys is a triumph."

— Kambole Campbell, Empire Magazine

"It’s a stunning achievement."

— Manohla Dargis, New York Times

"As major and memorable an achievement as any American film this decade."

— David Ehrlich, indieWire

"'Nickel Boys' is a masterpiece of an adaptation that showcases the harsh realities of racism within American society."

— Dina Kaur, Arizona Republic

"We’ll only be on day three of 2025 when this is released, but we might be witnessing the film of the year already. Nickel Boys is that extraordinary."

— Nick Howells, London Evening Standard

"'Nickel Boys' offers a different way to understand horrors based on true events not that far in the past by plunging viewers into its characters’ humanity."

— Michael Ordoña, San Francisco Chronicle

"A tragic yet hopeful tale about two young Black men stuck unjustly at a brutal reform camp in the 1960s, it is a transformational sequence of compositions."

— John Wilmes, Chicago Reader

"Director RaMell Ross’s bold reimagining of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel is both lyrical and urgent. This is a movie worth returning to again and again."

— Oliver Jones, Observer

"'Nickel Boys' is a life, made up of pieces; some of them lovely, some devastating. It’s a mesmerizing, uniquely told story — of memory, of injustice, of friendship, of survival."

— Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times

"This is story that should be remembered, and it is a movie that marks a remarkably original and at times daringly avant-garde feature debut for director and co-writer RaMell Ross."

— Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times

"A version that is true to the book, honouring both its spirit and its structure, while also managing to be a genuinely groundbreaking cinematic work. This is a sublime piece of film-making."

— Wendy Ide, Observer (UK)

"A groundbreaking adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer-winning novel from 2019, RaMell Ross’ poetic and visionary Nickel Boys finds its resilient spirit and lyrical temperament in the details."

— Tomris Laffly, AV Club

"A feat of full-bodied immersion, using a point-of-view camera, finely tuned sound design, and cinematic illusion to create a reality that takes hold of and then never quite leaves its audience’s souls."

— Clarisse Loughrey, Independent (UK)

"'Nickel Boys' hearkens back to a time that unfortunately still exists in some areas of America, even today. Phenomenal performances form Brandon Wilson, Ethan Herisse and the incomparable Aunjanue Eliis-Taylor"

— Carla Renata, TheWrap

"It is Ellis-Taylor’s big-hearted performance as a grandmother with enormous reservoirs of love and compassion that deepens the soul of this beautiful groundbreaking work of art, an achievement that we’ll be talking about and referencing in years to come."

— Randy Myers, San Jose Mercury News

"Creative artistry radiates from every frame of this groundbreaker from RaMell Ross who joins with camera wiz Jomo Fray to take us inside the eyes of two young Black men (Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson) to expose the abuses in a Florida reform school."

— Peter Travers, ABC News