Fences (2017) Review

Fences is the 2016 drama film, directed by Denzel Washington, written by August Wilson based on his play of the same name, and starring Denzel Washington and Viola Davis.

The Plot & Introduction

Fences is about a man named Troy Maxson, a sanitation worker, struggles to live a comfortable life while taking care of his wife and family. Troy wanted to a professional baseball player, but wasn't young enough to compete. His dreams were crushed and he doesn't want his son to be a part of the football team, growing up as a bitter man. 

I was very excited to see this film. I wasn't fortunate enough to see this screening at the end of 2016, and I'm sad that I didn't see this film in 2016 because this movie is actually pretty good. Would it make my list of my Top 10 Best Films of 2016? Well, no. But, it would most certainly be an honorable mention. But, since I saw this film in January 1, 2017, I have to make this a 2017 review, even though this film was out in 2016. If this film hold up against the other movies coming out this year, then maybe I'll post this in my list of Best Films of 2017.

The Positives

This movie is impressively well-directed by Denzel Washington. The plot is very engaging and everybody gave a wonderful performances, especially Denzel Washington and Viola Davis. The writing is very well done. The script and character composition are amazing. The technicalities in this film aren't that amazing, but Denzel Washington did a fine job directing this play adaptation. The drama here is spectacular.

The Negatives

In my experience going in the film, the only major negative I've experienced was the audience. The audience was annoyingly loud and disruptive whenever something integral or dramatic happens and it nearly ruined my experience with the film. But, I'm not going to penalize the movie for that, since that's not the film's fault. The only negative I found in this film was that whenever Denzel Washington is monologuing or when there's a dialogue sequence between him and the other characters, I feel those scenes last for too long. He talks so much and I'm sitting there, waiting for the next scene to come in. Also, I noticed that the dialogue feels too exposition-heavy. 

Conclusion

Despite the slight overuse of exposition and the long dialogue sequences that I feel could have been shortened, I enjoyed this movie a lot. I'm sorry about that mini-rant. I know the audience has nothing to do with the film's quality, but that was honestly the worst experience I've had with annoying moviegoers in my entire life. I just had to talk about it in my review. And it's such a shame too because the drama, like I said, is amazing, but it's hard to fully digest the intensity of the drama when you constantly have people making some unnecessary commentary in the background.

Score: B+