Roman J. Israel, Esq. (2017)

There are a lot of interesting things in this movie, but I felt like the movie didn't really flesh out any of those ideas quite enough. The most effective theme was the inner conflict between cynicism and idealism. I think it's probably a dilemma that is not uncommon for civil rights lawyers. This is only theme that really plays out and spoiler alert...neither really wins out. Roman J. Israel has been nobly working for years on a brief challenging the plea bargaining system. Denzel Washington is excellent as the savant lawyer. For maybe just a minute, he gets to explain his brief. But other than that, this idea is not thoroughly explored. And there is a lot to be said. The plea bargaining system used around the country, and now even adopted around the world, is a miscarriage of justice. And I would have liked to hear more about the legal challenge. He does take care to explain his seemingly nonsensical legal challenge against himself. And it seems like Colin Farrell understands his legal reasoning. But I did not. And I can't find a proper explanation anywhere on the internet. So I'm just going to go on not understanding. That definitely could have been better explained.

Fences (2016)

I've never seen the play, but this is supposedly verbatim from August Wilson's words. This is the first film adaptation of any work of Wilson's. He is an American treasure, and Denzel Washington does an honorable job doing him justice. You don't mess with something that ain't broke. Denzel is an actor's director. He lets the stars (most of all himself) shine. Most of the cast is straight from the 2010 Broadway production, for which Denzel and Viola Davis both won Tonys. The whole cast is excellent. They've gotten some flack for basically just putting on the play in front of a camera. But I don't have a problem with that. Plays tend to have deeper scripts. And they retain all the elements of this essential portrait of American life.