This week, as a part of our features series, we have a film review of Nickel Boys, directed by RaMell Ross. The review, by the Chicago-based Associate Editor at Roger Ebert, Robert Daniels, can be found here; read about why the film deserved a 4/4 star review and check it out when it hits theaters near you.

“Within each frame of Nickel Boys is not only the recreation of a moment—its stiff air, stifling aroma, and hardened touch—but the texture of the disposed.”

Adapted from the Pulitzer-winning book by Colson Whitehead, the film follows two young black boys during the height of segregation in Florida as they navigate their lives surviving the true story of the Dozier Reformatory School for Boys. The film was named among the New Yorker’s Best Films of 2024 and will be widely released in January 2025.

The Dozier School for Boys in the early 1900s.