Nickel Boys | 2024 | PG-13 | – 1.5.5

Why is “Nickel Boys” rated PG-13? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “thematic material involving racism, some strong language including racial slurs, violent content and smoking.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a couple of kisses, a teen being shot and killed, teens being whipped and punished and made to perform hard labor, discussions of unmarked graves and the deaths of numerous people at a reform school, discussions of racism and segregation in the south, bullying, people drinking liquor and smoking cigars and cigarettes, several arguments and 2 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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Two young Black men (Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson) are sent to a reform school in Florida in the late 1960s, and hope to survive the harsh conditions. A return to their lives seems unlikely when one of them undertakes to expose the brutal practices of the people in charge. Also with Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Ethan Cole Sharp, Sam Malone and Peter Gabb. Directed by RaMell Ross. [Running Time: 2:20]

Nickel Boys SEX/NUDITY 1

 – A teen boy and a teen girl kiss and make funny faces inside a photo booth.
► Young men and teens shower in a communal shower and a man tells them they have only a few minutes to finish (we see their bare shoulders, chests and backs). A woman sits in a bathtub and we see her bare knee. A teen boy takes off his pants to swim in a swimming pool and we see him wearing boxers.

Nickel Boys VIOLENCE/GORE 5

 – Two teens steal bicycles from a house and ride away from a reform school, they are chased by men in a truck, the teens ride off the road and run through a field and the men in the truck stop and shoot at them; we understand that one teen was struck and killed. Men with flashlights enter a dorm at night and take three teen boys away to a building, they are then taken behind a closed door and whipped with a belt (we hear whipping sounds and a teen cries out but is told to be quiet: “Don’t make a sound or you’ll get more”); one man says that one teen has urinated on himself and we later see a man with blood splatters on his shirt.
► A man stops on a road to pick up a teen boy walking; they are stopped by police, an officer grabs the driver by the ear and the man and the teen are arrested and charged with car theft. A man with a cane pokes two young Black men in the abdomen with the tip of his cane, and then holds it to the throat of one of them before walking away and shaking his head disdainfully. A teen boy wins a boxing match not realizing that he was in the third round and was supposed to throw the match (we understand something happens to him after that).
► Three teen boys are driven to a reform school, two white teens get out of the car and are greeted by a man with a handshake, and a Black teen is taken to a different part of the campus where we see teens carrying shovels and being loaded into carts pulled by tractors. Teens box in a ring.
► Two teen boys bully another teen and he cowers and backs against a wall as another teen enters the room telling them to stop; the intervening teen is punched hard in the face, falls to the floor and he is dragged away by a man who arrives and reprimands everyone involved. A teen lunges aggressively at another teen, and then laughs and walks away. Several teens mock another teen and bark loudly at him, teasing him repeatedly. Teens in a classroom stand on their chairs and we see an alligator hissing and swishing around on the floor. Teens are seen being made to dig large holes in the ground. Teens and a young boy are shown working in orange groves gathering oranges. While building bleachers at a reform school, a teen boy drops a bucket of nails and others seem anxious for him to pick them up as inspectors walk nearby.
► People are shown carrying signs during protest marches against segregation. A woman wakes up with a start and draws a knife in the dark before realizing that a young boy has entered her room; she tells him, “I’m not going anywhere.” A teen boy runs across a street and is nearly struck by a car. Newsreel footage shows the funeral procession of Martin Luther King. Flip drawings in a history book depict a Black man being hanged in a tree.
► A young man asks a man if he is a freedom rider; the man leans close to the boy and tells him that a white man struck him in the head with a tire iron. A woman talks about a white woman accusing her father of not getting out of her way and that he was found hanged in his cell. People refer to protests in Selma, Jim Crow laws and Martin Luther King. A man describes behavior rankings in a reform school and that by following the rules will allow the teens to go back home to their families, “If they’ll have you.” A man describes cussing and blaspheming as being negative behaviors and that teens should be working to reform themselves. A young man says that he got his draft notice that morning. A woman describes a lawyer accepting her money to pursue and appeal and then leaving the state. A headline reads, “Sinister history unearthed.” A man talks about a person being stuffed in a laundry machine and another being forced to eat a light bulb. A teen boy is shown sitting in a small room under a tar roof and we hear him breathing raggedly as another teen enters and says, “They’re gonna take you out back tonight.” A teen boy describes another teen as being half Mexican and that the reform school staff doesn’t know where to put him. A teen boy describes a punishment in the “sweat box” and that it is a small space under a tar roof where individuals are locked in. A teen says that he was punched in the mouth by his aunt’s boyfriend. A teen boy is told that he must throw a fight (boxing match) in the third round. A man says that another man had his “arm blown off” in Vietnam. Two teen boys talk about ways to get out of a reform school, including aging out, or running away. A teen describes a reform school doctor as a witch doctor and says if you come into the infirmary with your head cut off, he’ll give you an aspirin. A teen says that he was smacked across the face for smoking. A teen says that he swallowed soap powder to make himself sick.
► We see scenes from a movie where several men in chains are in the back of a truck and one persists in singing while an officer yells and tells him to be quiet. A woman is very upset when she arrives at a reform school to visit her grandson and the staff won’t allow her to see him. A teen is upset when he learns that his grandmother visited but was not permitted to see him. Men are shown exchanging money during a boxing match, betting on the outcome. A man does research about unmarked graves being discovered on the property of a reform school.
► A young man is shown with scars on his back (it is implied that he had been whipped). Young men in a dorm light matches while lying in their beds. A young boy climbing on a playground falls and hits his head on a bar; we hear a brief whimper and do not see injuries. A young boy holds a balloon close to a spinning ceiling fan and the paddles tap it. A teen punches the wood frame of a boxing ring and bloodies his knuckles.
► A woman tells a man that she screamed when a rat ran across her feet. An alligator walks along a street’s gutter hissing. A truck with a large wooden cross in the back drags the bottom along the road causing sparks to spray. We see an x-ray type image of a chest with ribs and a heart.

Nickel Boys LANGUAGE 5

 – About 2 F-words, 20 scatological terms, 6 anatomical terms, 10 mild obscenities, 4 derogatory terms for African-American people, name-calling (idiots, broke, ladies, dead man walking, demeaning, dumb, lowlifes, crazy, monkey [anatomical term deleted], punk, hero, math dummy, crook, witch doctor), exclamations (that’s enough, shut-up), 6 religious profanities (GD), 5 religious exclamations (e.g. oh my God, thank God, oh Jesus, Holy [scatological term deleted). | profanity glossary |

Nickel Boys SUBSTANCE USE

 – A man says that someone was “strung out.” People drink beer from cans and smoke cigarettes, a man says that someone is unable to count and drink at the same time, two men drink whiskey in a bar, a man drinks from a flask, a teen boy says that his mother loved him but that she loved liquor more, a man describes getting “blotto” every night, a man says that he has been “dryin’ out” for 30 days, and a teen says that he can smell something on a man (presumably liquor). A young man smokes cigarettes in several scenes, and a man smokes a cigar.

Nickel Boys DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Jim Crow laws, racism, Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, Sydney Poitier, Lyndon Johnson, Civil Rights Bill, segregation, civil disobedience, space exploration, Apollo 8, “Pride and Prejudice,” “The Defiant Ones.”

Nickel Boys MESSAGE

 – Hope is elusive.