Nickel Boys

This was brutal to watch—unsettling in a way that sticks with you long after. At times, the first-person camera work veers dangerously close to the over-sentimental style of a tired computer ad. But that doesn’t lessen the sheer intensity and heartbreaking grip this film has on you. It’s one of those rare films that challenges our historical narratives and fosters genuine empathy, never cheapening the experience with sentimental cues or drawn-out monologues.

This is a meditation on the reality of trauma, and what that trauma means in a historical context. History, after all, is just perspective. And with the film’s first-person conceit, you’re not just observing history—you’re living it. No matter how painful, how fucked up, how traumatizing it may be.