In 'Nickel Boys,' striving for a new way to see

Get Nadine White's Race Report newsletter for a fresh perspective on the week's news Get our free newsletter from The Independent's Race Correspondent Get our free newsletter from The Independent's Race Correspondent SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. In “Nickel Boys,” one of the most thrillingly innovative American films of the decade, Ross adapts Colson Whitehead’s 2019 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. In situating the viewer within the inner world of Elwood and Turner, it brings us closer to their experience, while shedding many of the conventions of both modern moviemaking and historical depictions from the time period of “Nickel Boys.” “I know if any person in here that has wild stereotypes about the world that they acknowledge or don’t if they saw through my eyes, they would be other gone, challenged or would collapse,” said Ross in a recent interview over coffee in midtown Manhattan. “The power is in the self and the eyes.” For Ross, who teaches visual art at Brown University, “Nickel Boys” isn’t just about finding a new way to photograph. “We’re still at the infancy of this as an artistic form.” Creating a ‘sentient perspective’ Ross and Fray, each of whom can be dazzlingly analytical about filmmaking and photography, found they weren’t exactly seeking POV.