Film Review — Nickel Boys

Ramell Ross adapts Colson Whitehead’s novel almost entirely with point-of-view shots to surprisingly powerful effect

Credit: Amazon MGM/Orion/Plan B

Films relying entirely or predominantly on first-person point-of-view shots are rare and typically occur with genre films. Examples include film noir Lady in the Lake (1947) and sci-fi action flick Hardcore Henry (2015). However, director RaMell Ross’s Nickel Boys makes particularly effective use of the technique in this g…