Nickel Boys & The Room Next Door

Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel has been adapted to the screen by director and co-screenwriter Ramell Ross, and "Nickel Boys" proves to be as compelling on screen as it is on the page. In this podcast episode, HCC film professors Marie Westhaver and Mike Giuliano share their admiration for a film that adroitly handles tough subject matter about a notorious Florida reform school that itself was in serious need of reform. Marie and Mike especially like how the director's point-of-view camerawork facilitates sharing the vantage point of the teen characters portrayed by Brandon Wilson and Ethan Herisse. Marie and Mike also discuss Spanish director Pedro Almodovar's first English-language feature, "The Room Next Door," in which the characters played by Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore evaluate their friendship and mortality-themed issues. Although Marie has reservations about the film's flashbacks, she and Mike agree that it's really nice spending time with these characters in a to-die-for house in the woods.