Review of Roman J. Israel, Esq. (2017) by Alan W — 08 Feb 2018

Roman J. Israel Esq. Written and Directed by Dan Gilory.

This is the sophomore film of director Dan Gilroy who previously made the excellent Nightcrawler. This is a different story entirely from that one but similar in a way. This is a story about someone so rooted in a certain timeframe. This is a story about a person who has his entire worldview uprooted and changed. He has a difficult time fitting in. He finds out that everything that defined him as a person was a lie. His activism has been changed to something else and what he did is not valued in the same light. He finds out that what he was doing with his friend at the law firm was not true either.

He seems like something is amiss with his personality. He might be on the spectrum as he is fairly socially awkward around most people. This is played for pathos. It can be misconstrued as trying to make things into a thriller. This is not a thriller. This is a drama focusing on this character.

This is an incredibly well done movie. I think many people might have been thinking this movie might be exactly like Nightcrawler but it's not. It is more languid and it stays in this character's mindset. I felt for him. What that must be like to be a man out of time? What is like trying to fit in with this new world and being in way over your head?

I give this movie a B.