45/49
Story
Elwood Curtis’ college dreams are dashed on a two-lane Florida highway. Bearing the weight of an innocent mistake, he is sentenced to Nickel Academy, a brutal correctional facility steeped in the Jim Crow South. He meets another ward, the all-seeing Turner. The two black teenagers form an alliance: Turner offers basic survival advice, Elwood clings to his optimistic worldview. Against the backdrop of the growing civil rights movement, Elwood and Turner’s existence seems a far cry from the refined rhetoric of the Rev. Martin Luther King. Despite Nickel’s brutality, Elwood tries to retain his humanity, awakening a new vision for Turner.