What a delight to see an acting institution unto himself — crafting a chatty character of almost unspoken complexity who is tearful, fallible, mortal, deeply despondent and absolutely unlike anything Denzel Washington has ever done.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 28, 2024

Gilroy and Washington deftly open up this character’s quirks and complexities, and even when the narrative begins to wander Roman is still the focus.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 25, 2022

However noble the film's intentions, the material receives a muddied and unclear treatment from its director and star.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 17, 2022

Tries to be a morality play, a character study, an indictment of the unjust legal system and occasionally a thriller, a romance and a drama about mental illness.

| Original Score: C+ | Aug 24, 2021

The movie tries to walk a razor's edge and almost pulls it off.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 16, 2021

Although the motives for Roman's eventual extra-legal maneuver are not entirely credible, Gilroy's aim was to investigate the toll exacted by a 40-year commitment to ideals that are "bigger than yourself."

| Feb 21, 2021

What we have here is one of the finest performances of Denzel Washington's long and extraordinarily consistent career.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Nov 21, 2020

A richly subtle compelling character study which struggles to overcome its own meandering plot.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 19, 2020

Denzel Washington makes this film work by stringing together Dan Gilroy's plot threads. [Full review in Spanish]

| Jul 4, 2020

I'd recommend the movie to those who enjoy watching the process and skill of acting, to watch Washington make it look easy.

| May 20, 2020

The real joy here is watching Denzel Washington do a decidedly different thing than we're used to seeing.

| Mar 24, 2020

The movie is intriguing because of [Denzel] Washington but does not live up to the caliber of his performance.

| Oct 10, 2019

The film at moments was difficult to watch. Washington is so amazing and incredible in this role specifically, that the uncomfortable feeling is tolerated.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 5, 2019

Dan Gilroy gets a heterogeneous mix of legal mystery, drama, characters portrayal, improbable romance, black humor and tragedy. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 12, 2019

The verdict is in. Washington's marvelous performance is better than the film.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 2, 2019

Even though its shaggy-dog story of idealism gone sour threatens to come apart in places, Denzel Washington's career-best performance is never less than compelling.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 26, 2019

There's an excellent movie in here somewhere - the performances alone are proof of that - but for whatever reason, [Dan] Gilroy's story doesn't click.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Feb 8, 2019

An outstanding Denzel Washington performance.

| Original Score: B- | Jan 31, 2019

Roman J. Israel, Esq. has great intentions, but it spends too much time picking a story and is never able to deliver on its initial promise.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 8, 2018

.Roman J. Israel's inability to find narrative propulsion and tonal consistency is even more disappointing in the context of Nightcrawler.

| Original Score: C- | Nov 2, 2018