Roman J. Israel, Esq. (2017)

It is odd to see an actor of Denzel Washington's statue act a little on the bumbling side.  He plays an age congruent role as a lawyer who has been in practice for decades solely as someone who prepared the legal case for court cases that his partner litigates.  He has absolutely no court room experience, he is literally dwelling in the Black Panther 1960's mentality, and functioning at a very basic level professionally, and subsisting on a salary that is surely lower than what they paid their secretary.  Then comes the death of his partner and he is cast out and unwanted.  It is painful to watch from start to finish, which includes a middle and end where a shark like lawyer, played to a tee by Colin Farrell, plays him long and hard.  This is yet another Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, and so remarkably different from the role his was nominated for last year in Fences that you might miss that it was the very same actor if you did not know it to be so.