Nickel Boys
Official Trailer 2
Amazon MGM Studios

In 1960s Florida, Elwood Curtis, a bright and idealistic Black teenager, is wrongly convicted as an accomplice in a car theft. He is sentenced to Nickel Academy, a reform school that promises rehabilitation but delivers brutality and injustice. There, he encounters Turner, a cynical and wary fellow student. Inspired by the Civil Rights Movement, Elwood clings to the belief in meritocracy, while Turner expects only mistreatment from society. Their friendship becomes a lifeline as they navigate the academy's segregated and abusive environment, where the staff exploits the Black students for labor and metes out cruel punishments. The film explores the tension between Elwood's idealism and Turner's realism, and the devastating consequences of systemic racism and abuse.