Brent_Marchant
The artistic choices a director makes while working on a film often contribute much to the success or failure of the finished project. When these decisions aptly suit the nature of the production, they can transform a commendable picture into a cinematic masterpiece. But, when they fail at this, they can unduly get in the way, and such is the case with this debut narrative feature from writer-director RaMell Ross. Based on the 2020 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Colson Whitehead, the film tells the story of two young Black men, Ellwood (Ethan Herisse) and Turner (Brandon Wilson), who reside at the Nickel Academy, a fictional Florida reform school based on the infamous Dozier School for Boys, an institution known for its notoriously abusive...