Helga without the H

Almost every year I attempt (with varying degrees of success) to watch as many Oscar nominees as possible before the ceremony. I post half-assed reviews here on my blog, and then at the end I write up some sort of silly analysis, predictions, reactions, etc. The quantity and quality depends entirely on how much time and energy I have each year, and I’m not gonna lie, this year’s already starting pretty dang rough! But let’s see how it goes. Today we turn to:

Nickel Boys

[2 nominations for best picture and adapted screenplay]

I’m squeeeezing in my last 1 or 2 reviews before the ceremony tomorrow. Man, time flies! I picked this film next because, of the remaining Best Picture nominees, it was also the cheapest to stream. This film is generating significantly less buzz than several other nominees, and is only up for two awards, but I’d heard good things and was looking forward to watching it.

The gimmick on this one is that it’s all shot in 1st person, just like the British Masterpiece series Peep Show. Good stuff, because I LOVE Peep Show! Unlike Peep Show, though, this one’s a slow burn. I mean a reeeeally slow burn. By the end of the film I realized we did actually shove in a decent amount of plot, but it didn’t really feel like it in the moment. You get used to the first person thing pretty quickly, and I applaud the filmmakers for their shot selection. We learn early on not to focus so much on the characters and their actions, as on the personal feelings and the greater implications involved. In some ways this film is similar to this year’s best film Flow, which, as a film with no dialogue, also depends more heavily on nuanced storytelling than most films. Sometimes this worked great. At other times, I felt a bit dumb because I could not quite understand what we were supposed to be taking in. Sometimes the screen flashes to people and places completely unrelated (at least directly) to our characters, and while sometimes the parallels between these flashes and our film were obvious to me, at other times they were not.

It should surprise nobody to learn that this film is depressing as fuck. I mean… it’s about black kids in the DEEEEEP south in the 1960’s (so, you know, plenty of racism) who wind up in a juvenile detention facility (so, you know, plenty of abuse.) I was reminded at times of the movie Sleepers, though that’s entirely based on subject matter. It should also surprise nobody to know that, while the book on which this film is based in fiction, it is based on very real places. This, of course, makes the film all the more depressing. Between the slow burn and the depressing material, this is definitely not an enjoyable watch.

That being said, sure, I didn’t enjoy it. I have no desire to watch it again. But is it a good movie? Yeah. I think it is. I think it deserves its best picture nomination. But at the same time, I don’t think it deserves the win. It’s tough to put my finger on why, exactly, this film didn’t wow me the way I would have liked. What is missing? I honestly don’t know. I’m racking my brain, and thinking of good examples. Maybe the story was just too simple? Maybe I wanted more plot points? Maybe that’s it. But that’s admittedly all a matter of personal preference.