The initial scenes of Nickel Boys are somehow both vivid and vague, like one’s own earliest childhood memories. We’re seeing the point of view of Elwood, a bright, impressionable African-American kid in 1960s Florida. The warm imagery and the overheard conversations and broadcasts evoke a potent sense of the remembrance of things past, but also suggest a small child’s grasp of them. Then we see Elwood’s point of view years later as a teenager, when he accepts...