Denzel Washington directed and stars in this adaptation of August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, which centers on a black garbage collector named Troy Maxson in 1950s Pittsburgh. Bitter that baseball’s color barrier was only broken after his own heyday in the Negro Leagues, Maxson is prone to taking out his frustrations on his loved ones. Both Washington and co-star Viola Davis won Tonys for their performances in the 2010 revival of the play. Stephen Henderson, Jovan Adepo, Russell Hornsby, and Mykelti Williamson round out the supporting cast.
“Fences is a labor of love and attention must be paid. You don’t get writing or acting of this caliber every day, and in this particularly dreary year of second-rate everything, this movie is something special.” -Rex Reed, New York Observer
“In bringing August Wilson to the screen for the first time, director-star Washington does the playwright proud by refusing to slice Fences into small pieces and serve it to short attention spans.” -Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
