We start with a few local events before we move on to the reviews this month. The Noir Nights Cube Cinema Showcase finishes on Saturday, April 5, with a screening and discussion of Sunset Boulevard at The Cube. For information and tickets, visit mca80238.com. Be sure to bring food donations for the Metropolitan State University of Denver food pantry.

Colorado State University’s ACT Human Rights Film Festival runs April 2–6 in Fort Collins, with a virtual encore April 7–15. The festival celebrates its 10th year showcasing excellent new films that aim to educate and inspire. This year’s festival will screen 23 films from around the world both on CSU’s campus and at The Lyric, Fort Collins’s independent movie theater. The full festival and film lineup, as well as festival passes and event tickets (which are all pay-what-you-can) are available now at actfilmfest.colostate.edu. Please support this wonderful series.

To the reviews…

Nickel Boys

This is one of the more innovative films to come around in a while. Based on the 2019 historical novel by Colson Whitehead, it tells the story of the infamous Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, Florida, a reform school in the 1960s that became known for horrible abuse of the students. The film employs a unique first-person camera technique that forces us into the perspectives of the characters and doesn’t let us go. For the first half of the film, we are sutured into one perspective, and for the second half, another. Once we are used to the visual style, the film grips us.

Nickel Boys

Director RaMell Ross proves himself an expert helmsman at telling the story, infusing it with visual flourish, and getting the most out of every performance. Ethan Herisse as Elwood and Brandon Wilson as Turner are phenomenal as the two boys we follow through various wretched abuses. The editing also shines in the film, as we get intercutting of historical footage and stills that add depth and verisimilitude. We understand that it is not just a story but rather it is based on an ugly chapter of American history. Overall, this is an interesting, expressive, fascinating, and extremely creative film that is well worth seeing and discussing afterward.

I’m Still Here 

This wonderful film—the recent winner of the Best International Feature Film at the Oscars—is as important as it is satisfying on every level. It was my pick for that particular category, but I also found it the best overall film of the year. The technical aspects are stellar, the writing and directing are excellent, and the performances are luminous. It tells the story of Eunice Paiva and her family, whose husband was “disappeared” by the Brazilian military dictatorship in 1971. Based on the memoir by Marcelo Rubens Paiva (Eunice’s son), we see the political through the personal—in this case the story of one family’s nightmare under the dictatorship and beyond.

I’m Still Here

Directed by the venerable Walter Salles, he injects warmth, authenticity, and empathy into every frame. But the heartbeat of the film is the astounding performance by Fernanda Torres as Eunice Paiva (deserved nominee for the Best Actress Award at the Oscars). It is truly a one-of-a-kind role that requires Torres to run the gamut of emotions and situations, and every second is brilliant and mesmerizing. She is Eunice, and she embodies the pain of so many people put in that situation all over the world for countless decades. Interestingly, her performance comes 25 years after her mother, Fernanda Montenegro, was nominated for Best Actress in the acclaimed Brazilian film Central Station, also directed by Salles. Don’t miss this one.

Both films are available on various streaming services.

Vincent Piturro, PhD., is a Professor of Film and Media Studies at MSU Denver. Contact him directly at vpiturro@msudenver.com or follow him on Twitter. For more reviews, search The Indie Prof at FrontPorchNE.com.