A stirring follow-up to his directorial debut Hale County This Morning, This Evening, RaMell Ross' adaptation of Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize winner is a biting, visually adventurous coming-of-age story set in Jim Crow-era Florida, based on actual events. 

Elwood (Ethan Herisse) is an idealistic Black high schooler whose aims of attending college are upended when racist law officials falsely accuse and then convict him of a crime, pulling him away from the loving arms of his grandmother (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor). Elwood is sent away to Nickel Academy where he befriends a world-weary Turner (Brandon Wilson), who helps him navigate the trials ahead at this abusive reformatory school, which becomes a microcosm of American racism in the mid-20th century.

Arrestingly gorgeous and daringly immersive, Ross effortlessly switches decades—the story spans the 1960s to the 2010s and changes perspectives. As it swims through memories, traumas, friendships, archival footage and moments of defiance, Ross' film offers a radical gaze at the perils of Black boyhood. Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios

D: RaMell Ross, US, 2024, 2h20m