// Personal website of Chris Smith

Films » Nickel Boys

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I absolutely loathe the way this was filmed. I think the performances and the story have merit, but I just can’t appreciate them.

The obvious elephant in the room is the POV shots. I don’t outright hate the idea, but it’s way too shaky-cam-y for me, and in places it’s very obnoxious about not looking at things you want to look at. I actually quite liked the opening as you got glimpses of Elwood through reflections, but I wish it’d have snapped out to a normal perspective after it establishes the character.

On top of that there’s the aspect ratio, the random cutaways, archive footage, jumps in perspective, flash-forwards, screechy discordant soundtrack, and so on. It just feels messy to me, and distracts me from what’s going on.

Appears in these lists

Annoying scores

Poster of Mad MaxPoster of Nickel BoysPoster of The ShiningPoster of Bugonia

Films with scores that grated on me, or just distracted from the film.

4 films

Watched films ranked

Poster of Easy APoster of HackersPoster of The MatrixPoster of SinnersPoster of Apollo 13

Every film I’ve watched since I started logging, ranked.

Obviously super subjective, and subject to change often and arbitrarily.

240 films

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