Review of Fences (2016) by Matsnowie — 11 Feb 2017

There is a great tradition in Hollywood for adapting plays to the screen. You can always tell when a film has come this way because of it's extended scenes, small casts, and grand dialogue. At times it can be Shakespearean–which is to say, long and daunting for most audiences. Other times it can bring film back to its roots.

We don't always need a grand score and special effects. We don't always need the auteur designs of a Wes Anderson set or a Kathryn Bigelow action scene. Sometimes we just need to see these performers play a scene while we (the camera) sit back and experience the story.

Like Doubt or Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Fences is about the script and the performers. And Denzel Washington understood this when he put together this perfect cast and let them play it all out on a real Pittsburg street. It's a raw and realistic story captures a time and place and people as well as anything flashy with twice the budget could have.