I’m sad because I wanted to love this. What a unique and extraordinary feat of cinematography, with some terrific performances throughout.

But in its overlong, heavily episodic 140 minutes, all I could ever pay attention to was the striking imagery of the film and that unusual first-person point-of-view. As much as I was impressed with how this movie was made, the shooting style on display unfortunately never allowed for any immersion into the narrative itself, or the characters, or the emotion of the piece. I think for any movie to succeed, it has to transcend the craft of it all and engage you at least somewhat on a story level, and Nickel Boys didn’t do that for me.

I’ll be happy to see this film get some nominations and prizes this awards season because there’s certainly a lot to ire about it. I just think as a movie it leaves the viewer at a distance and is ultimately more enamored with its filmmaking technique than the story it’s telling.