Behind ‘Nickel Boys’ Unique Approach to Presenting Characters’ Perspectives

Nickel Men It can change the way we see faces on the screen.

Editor Nicholas Monsour believes so, too.

Drama based on Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Nickel BoysOne of the most original edited and shot films of the year. Director RaMell Ross decided to tell the story from a first-person perspective of two teenagers who met at an abusive reform school in 1960s Florida. The camera begins with the eyes of Elwood (Ethan Herisse), who is sent to Nickel after accidentally getting into a stolen car on his way to college classes. The plot then shifts to the perspective of Elwood’s friend Turner (Brandon Wilson), an attractive young man who is initially resigned to his circumstances.

“That’s the craziest part of the movie, and the funniest part is seeing how these characters look at each other,” Monsour said. “This is something you don’t feel in most movies,” he says. “I think you look at faces differently after watching the movie.”

Monsour also believes the technique can help shed new light on characters.

“What’s fascinating about the first-person perspective is that you learn about the character through the things the character chooses to look at, and when I started seeing that, it told me a lot about the character,” Monsour says.

Monsour, whose credits include Jordan Peele films We And Nocame at the beginning Nickel Men, He found himself, as an editor in his own right, working with a director who had his own ideas about editing a film. (Ross did this in his Oscar-nominated documentary Hale District This Morning, This Evening.)

When Ross came to New York to cut the film, he and Monsour had what Monsour calls a “theoretical orientation” around the ideas Ross was trying to convey. In addition to delving into the history of point-of-view filmmaking, Monsour re-examined texts he had not read since college about the study of phenomenology, which deals with the philosophy of perception. He also studied the work of philosopher Lewis Gordon, who thought about racist perspectives. These would help him discuss his choices in the editing department.

Nickel Men It also contains many archive materials. Nickel Academy is based on the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Florida, but beyond visual references to the real place, Ross also includes other footage from historical records, such as documentary footage of the space race and black life in America. Monsour says that by combining this with material shot by cinematographer Jomo Fray, he created a “tapestry.”

Still, Monsour’s job as editor was largely to establish the audience’s understanding of the character through what Elwood and Turner saw. Archival footage could sometimes act as a representation of what was going on on a subconscious level for the characters, but Monsour also relied on footage from the set.

“They really focused on those kinds of moments that were very personal and also spoke volumes about Elwood’s particular sensitivity, intelligence and imagination,” says Monsour.

The action sometimes jumps forward in time to reveal the adult version of Elwood, played by Daveed Diggs, providing some of the film’s most surprising moments. (When Diggs is on screen, the camera stands behind him, fixated on his body. Monsour believes the effect is almost “ghostly.”)

The challenge in the editing process was deciding when to jump to which time period.

“The book involved all kinds of tricks, like stepping back, looking at the outlines and rhythmic patterns of these things, and then watching it and seeing what different effects it would have if it happened a little bit earlier or later,” he says.

He is proud of the shock of the first pass to the elder Elwood. “Humblely, I still feel the same excitement I felt when we first cut the adult Elwood footage with the click of a mouse at the film’s most emotionally traumatic moment.”

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This story first appeared in the December standalone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To get the magazine Click here to subscribe.