Fences

Fences (2016) is set in Pittsburgh in the 1950s. Troy Maxson works on a garbage truck. He played baseball as a young man and never reached the major leagues because of the colour line. Almost all of it takes place in one back yard, and Troy talks: to his son, his wife, his brother and himself. The source is August Wilson's Pulitzer winning play. Wilson had insisted while alive that any film be directed by a Black director, and that condition held the adaptation up for years. Denzel Washington directed and played Troy. Viola Davis plays Rose. Both had played these parts in the 2010 Broadway revival and both won Tony Awards for them, and they returned to the same roles here. Stephen McKinley Henderson, Russell Hornsby and Mykelti Williamson come from that production too. Viola Davis won Best Supporting Actress, and the film was nominated in four categories including Best Picture. It runs 139 minutes. Good for: adaptations of plays, acting driven cinema, and August Wilson. Less good for: the film never hides its stage origin; the camera barely moves, the location barely changes, and the speeches run at theatrical length. Troy's behaviour seems to be defended for a long stretch, which some viewers find exhausting.