Recently nominated for two Academy Awards, including best picture, "Nickel Boys" opens Jan. 24 at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln's Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center.
Continuing is "Hard Truths" and "The Room Next Door."
Also nominated for best adapted screenplay, "Nickel Boys" is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Colson Whitehead and chronicles the powerful friendship between two young Black teenagers navigating the harrowing trials of reform school together in 1960s Florida.
In "Hard Truths," Marianne Jean-Baptiste plays Pansy, a woman wracked by fear, tormented by afflictions, and prone to raging tirades against her husband, son, and anyone who looks her way. Meanwhile, her easygoing younger sister, played by Michele Austin ("Another Year"), is a single mother with a life as different from Pansy’s as their clashing temperaments — brimming with communal warmth from her salon clients and daughters alike. This expansive film from a master dramatist takes viewers into the intensities of kinship, duty and the most enduring of human mysteries: that even through lifetimes of hurt and hardship, we still find ways to love those we call family.
"Hard Truths," rated R, is showing through Jan. 30.
"The Room Next Door" follows Ingrid (Julianne Moore) and Martha (Tilda Swinton), who were close friends in their youth when they worked together at the same magazine. Ingrid went on to become a novelist while Martha became a war reporter, and they were separated by the circumstances of life. After years of being out of touch, they meet again in an extreme but strangely sweet situation.
"The Room Next Door," rated PG-13, is showing through Jan. 30.
For more information on films, including showtimes and ticket availability, visit the Ross website.
