The best (what there was) of 2016 from George Thomas

By George M. Thomas

"La La Land" is a full blown, retro musical worth the time.

For years I’ve tried to avoid slapping the “best” label on a list of films at the end of the year. The reasons are numerous, the primary one: I’m not a filmmaker.

There’s too much craftsmanship that goes into making a film for me to completely understand what goes on behind the scenes.

I do, however, know what I like. Oddly enough it usually dovetails with the stuff a lot of critic-types eventually put on lists at this time of the year. Call it 50-some odd years of watching warmed over cinematic hash.

FENCES

By George M. Thomas

Viola Davis and Denzel Washington in FENCES.

I have little problem admitting because of my ethnic make-up (predominantly African-American) that FENCES probably hits with more emotional force than any other film this year. That Troy (Denzel Washington), the film’s protagonist, is also a father makes this examination in race, social justice and morality that much more compelling.

That Troy (Denzel Washington), the film’s protagonist, is also a father makes this examination in race, social justice and morality that much more compelling.

Based on August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, which he adapted for the screen before his death, and directed by Washington, FENCES lays bare what it means to be a black male in America. 

That it’s set in the 1950s means little. Some things remain true despite the passage of time.  Perhaps that’s why Wilson set the play in Pittsburgh in 1953 when he wrote it in the early ‘80s.

Blacks were not equal in the eyes of the law as the Civil Rights Movement was still evolving. And though some, such as Troy, were allowed in the middle class, the opportunities didn’t come in the private sector; they did in the public sector as city workers.  In Troy’s case as a garbage man.