Prime Video has just added one of 2025’s very best movies

The film was only out in cinemas a few weeks ago and was nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars.

Set mostly in the '60s, the movie follows an African-American teenager named Elwood (played by Ethan Herisse) who dreams of college but, due to an innocent misstep, is sentenced to the netherworld of Nickel Academy - a brutal reformatory sunk deep in the Jim Crow South.

"He encounters another ward, the seen-it-all Turner (Brandon Wilson). The two Black teens strike up an alliance: Turner dispensing fundamental tips for survival, Elwood, clinging to his optimistic worldview," the plot synopsis reads.

"Despite Nickel's brutality, Elwood strives to hold onto his humanity, awakening a new vision for Turner."

Co-written and directed by acclaimed documentarian RaMell Ross in his narrative feature debut, Nickel Boys also features amongst its cast Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor (King Richard), Daveed Diggs (Snowpiercer), Fred Hechinger (Gladiator II), Hamish Linklater (Midnight Mass) and Jimmie Fails (The Last Black Man in San Francisco).

And the film is noteworthy for being shot from a first-person point-of-view, in order so that viewers see the plot unfold directly through the eyes of the two protagonists.

Holding a 91% score on Rotten Tomatoes, the drama has earned rave reviews from critics - being praised for its important story, distinct shooting style and powerful performances.

Nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture at this year's Oscars, you can read some glowing write-ups of Nickel Boys below:

London Evening Standard: 'We’ll only be on day three of 2025 when this is released, but we might be witnessing the film of the year already. Nickel Boys is that extraordinary."

The Nighly (AU): "By putting you in the literal point-of-view of its characters, the film becomes an empathy machine."

Observer (UK): "A version that is true to the book, honouring both its spirit and its structure, while also managing to be a genuinely groundbreaking cinematic work. This is a sublime piece of film-making."

San Jose Mercury News: "It is Ellis-Taylor’s big-hearted performance as a grandmother with enormous reservoirs of love and compassion that deepens the soul of this beautiful groundbreaking work of art, an achievement that we’ll be talking about and referencing in years to come."

Seattle Times: “Nickel Boys is a life, made up of pieces; some of them lovely, some devastating. It’s a mesmerizing, uniquely told story — of memory, of injustice, of friendship, of survival."

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