I tacitly avoided this for a long time because I didn't like how it was seemingly marked as a romp, I was weary of a pro cop slant that I feared would turn on cheap comedy; I'm sorry for giving short shrift to Spike Lee in my mind.

Spike inverts what this story is on the surface by building real tension and slipping into his signature poignant style at the perfect time (the dueling scene featuring Harry Belafonte).

Still, the…

“A rat done bit my sister Nell
With whitey on the moon”
-Gil Scott-Heron

There is a device in Nickel Boys where archival footage us used to inform the user when in time the next scene will take place. We see footage from the 1968 Apollo 8 mission then we hear one character tell another that a rat just ran across her feet. As an audience we're not only grounded in time, we're also grounded in the culture of the…

"She didn't see me."

It's heartbreaking to think this is Marianne's lasting memory of watching Héloïse at the theatre, Héloïse is seeing her in that moment, as she likely does every day.

The coda on this if beautiful, just as the entire movie is beautiful. It was so joyful to watch these characters get to fully experience being themselves.

So much can be said, so I'll offer a few stray thoughts:
While Marianne and Héloïse get to be themselves for…

This movies is so meticulously crafted and so striving that it invites every critique that can be levied. The high highs it reaches are transcendent and the intentionality of creating those peaks must be lauded. Meanwhile, the missteps it makes must be acknowledged and are so easily seen as a failure because you know the decision making that lead to those missteps was thought through.

I disagree with a common criticism that second half of the movie can just about…