Actor Spotlight: Denzel Washington
Catch the great Denzel in his new movie streaming on HBO Max today
It’s amazing we almost made it two years into doing this newsletter before we dedicated a whole post to Denzel Washington. One of our greatest living actors, Denzel has been wowing audiences since the 80s. He’s been decorated with Oscars (eight acting nominations and two wins), entertained millions for over three decades, and become an icon in the process.
For the first time since 2018, Denzel is back on our screens. His new movie, The Little Things, co-starring Rami Malek and Jared Leto, debuts on HBO Max today. It’s a crime drama that looks about as dark and creepy as you would expect it to be. Enjoy the return of Denzel and enjoy our picks for his best movies streaming now.
Billy recommends…
Deja Vu (streaming on Amazon Prime)
Absolute pure joy rewatching this insanely gripping action thriller this week. Deja Vu is a movie that opened my eyes to the wonderful movie star Denzel Washington. I saw Deja Vu in theaters in 2006 and before that date I only remember seeing Glory, Philadelphia, and Remember the Titans. All of which are rewarding experiences. All of them became even greater on rewatches in adulthood. Deja Vu is the one that made Denzel a legend for me.
Denzel is an actor that can do the most with little. That is not spite for this movie, but anyone watching will see the hollowness in the role. It is a lot of exposition with little emotional weight, but the moments he is given to express emotion go to 10 in the most believable way.
This is able to happen for two reasons. First, his relationship with director Tony Scott. Denzel and Scott have collaborated on five movies together. Deja Vu is the third and by this point you can tell Denzel knows exactly what Scott needs to make his movie successful: Be convincing in the action sequences, create a charisma that an audience can latch on to, and make the few emotional moments set the tone for the whole movie. Second, there is a scene with Denzel and a father of a deceased woman that when you look deep has silly dialogue and a trope that is in almost every silly action movie. In Denzel’s hands it is elevated to beautiful cinema that propels the movie forward with high stakes that grips an audience.
I remember a conversation with a mom-like figure and my best friend where I was having to defend Denzel while debating who was better? Denzel Washington or Bruce Willis? The answer is clearly Denzel and I definitely won the debate. Use Deja Vu to start your new binge of Denzel movies and unnecessarily scream, “DENZEL IS BETTER THAN BRUCE!”
Drew recommends…
Remember the Titans (streaming on Disney Plus)
Imagine for a second Denzel Washington was replaced in Remember the Titans with an average actor. Would it still be a decent sports movie? Probably. Between the great supporting cast and the captivating story, there’s enough compelling pieces in place to ensure a solid movie. With Denzel, though? Remember the Titans becomes one of the most memorable sports movies we’ve got.
How would the Gettysburg scene play without Denzel’s unmatched gravitas? Would the “Who’s your daddy” scene be nearly as fun to watch without Denzel’s formidable showmanship? And would it be half as convincing or inspirational when T.C. Williams comes together despite the odds with anyone but Denzel? No, it would not.
Denzel has made a lot of different types of movies -- historical dramas, kinetic action thrillers, dark character studies. This may be his most crowd-pleasing effort, the one that hits every audience quadrant. It’s true that Remember the Titans is a Disney-fied version of race relations in 1970s Virginia, but Denzel’s presence and commitment lends the film extra weight. He imbues Coach Herman Boone with a strong will and a fierce intellect. Part of the reason this movie feels so timeless is because Denzel’s performance will never go out of style.
Malcolm X (streaming on HBO Max)
This is a re-post from a June 2020 newsletter
So many biopics of important historical figures go the predictable, unimaginative, lifeless route. None of those qualities would accurately describe a Spike Lee film, so of course his biopic of Malcolm X is something different.
Malcolm X is educational and informative, to be sure, but first and foremost, it’s well-crafted entertainment. Fair warning: this movie is 3 hours and 21 minutes long. But it doesn’t necessarily feel that long because of Spike and Denzel Washington, who plays the famous civil rights activist. The two team up to make Malcolm X into an engrossing 201 minutes.
The film essentially shows us Malcolm X’s path from childhood to his shocking assassination in 1965. We see his early days as a small-time gangster, his imprisonment and conversion to the Nation of Islam, then his falling out with the organization followed by his pilgrimage to Mecca and his changing views on race relations. Denzel is asked to utilize his boundless charisma and talent to carry this movie from start to finish, appearing in almost every scene. Not many actors, if any, can pull that off like Denzel can.
Spike sidesteps many conventional biopic issues and presents Malcolm X as a complex, evolving human being. He’s not afraid to lay out the good and the bad of the man in an unvarnished manner. It may cause you to see Malcolm X in a new light -- I know it did for me. In school I had learned of him as an opposing force to Dr. Martin Luther King’s nonviolence. The more I discover about Dr. King and Malcolm X, the more I come to see they were not the one-dimensional figures we learned about in history class. Dr. King was more strident than his legacy and Malcolm X was less radical than his, especially near the end.
That’s the value in spending 200 minutes watching a dramatization of a historical figure like this, especially from a filmmaker like Spike Lee. You gain a new perspective on someone you may have thought you previously had nailed down, no matter what you thought of them before. Seeing an interpretation of their life experiences portrayed across the screen is a unique opportunity to empathize and understand them.
Top 5 Denzel Washington Performances
Billy:
Malcolm X
Inside Man
Training Day
Glory
Deja Vu
Drew:
Malcolm X
Training Day
Remember the Titans
Flight
Philadelphia
Links
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