Nickel Boys

Elwood Curtis is a bright Black teen in early 1960s Tallahassee whose college dreams vanish when a simple ride in the wrong car sends him to Nickel Academy, a remote reform school ruled by fear and strict segregation. There he meets Turner, a wary boy who knows how the place really works and teaches Elwood how to stay alive without losing himself. The film follows their growing friendship inside a violent system, mixing intimate, poetic images with moments of quiet hope as they struggle with faith, anger, and the question of who they might become.