My thoughts on Fences (2016)

I only recently got round to watching Fences. Its been on my watchlist for a while, with Denzel Washington being comfortably one of my favourite actors, but now that I know just how brilliant this film is, I can’t believe its taken me 6 years to make time for. The plot concerns a working class American father (Denzel) trying to raise his family in the 1950s, while fighting racism, money struggles and his own inner demons. Viola Davis stars as his wife, with Denzel also stepping into the director’s chair, and screenplay by August Wilson.

Not that I know what 1950s Pittsburgh was like, but everything about this film felt so genuine and lived in, from the clothing design of the characters to the visuals of the handful of streets you see throughout. A truly beautiful aesthetic experience, and a world I really believed was real. Also, despite being set in a specific time period, Fences is a story that has a timeless feel, with themes of race, economic hardships and familial love and responsibility that will be topical forever, making it all the more emotional.

The main element that holds this film though is undoubtedly the performances. Firstly, Denzel gives perhaps the greatest performance of his illustrious career as Troy Maxson, a flawed and tormented man, who doesn’t know where to direct his frustrations except at those he loves. The film doesn’t excuse his actions, merely telling us why these actions happened, and despite making error after error, Denzel makes it very difficult to not at least empathize with Troy. He makes you resent him, love him, can make you laugh, and can make you scared. It is a fully fleshed out character, that Denzel injects so much power and energy into with every second he’s on screen. Viola Davis as Rose Maxson is simply incredible as well, and fully deserving of her Oscar win. She feeds off the energy that Denzel provides, even outshining him at times, especially during her monologue about her hopes and dreams. It could be argued Rose is the real heart of the film, since she is the much less flawed of the two main characters, but either way the chemistry between the two is electric, and Denzel and Viola seem as if they have lived in the skins of Troy and Rose for a long time. Finally in terms of performances, I feel I need to give a mention to the supporting cast. Stephen Henderson as Jim Bono, Jovan Adepo as Cory Maxson, Russel Hornsby as Lyons Maxson and Mykelti Williamson as Gabriel Maxson all do great jobs. They have small roles but are all very different types of characters, allowing you to see all sides of Troy and Rose, and acting as very effective foils for the powerhouse performances of the two leads.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on 2016’s Fences, a gem of a film. A dialogue driven piece of cinema that requires your patience, but if you give it that, it develops into beautifully raw human drama with themes and characters that will resonate for years to come, brought to life by a true acting clinic from the whole cast.

Should Andy Serkis get an Oscar nomination for his motion capture performances?

With Andy Serkis reprising his role as Caesar in the hugely anticipated War for the Planet of the Apes, in theatres this weekend, talk has once again surfaced suggesting that Serkis should be nominated for an Oscar for his performance. Of course, I will have to wait till I see War for the Planet of the Apes to form an opinion on that particular performance, but his numerous brilliant motion capture performances of the past can certainly be analysed. Although there have been other actors who have produced other really good motion capture performances, such as Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk and Zoe Saldana in Avatar (2009), Serkis is seen as the godfather of this particular kind of acting, being one of the leading reasons it has become as advanced as it has today. Talk for Serkis to be nominated first began with his role as Gollum in the ‘Lord of the Rings’ films, then to a slightly lesser degree for his role as King Kong. It happened again when he first played Caesar in 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and then the loudest noises for Serkis’ exceptional and pioneering work for motion capture to be recognised came in 2014’s summer sequel Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Although Koba was also brilliant in this film, Caesar was certainly the standout. Serkis has said that his work deserves to be judged on a level playing field to all other actors, as motion capture work has reached such a level of quality and sophistication. The technology is truly amazing and the general public have generally been wowed by just how much he brings these characters to life, but some have had trouble accepting it as acting, despite the great visuals.

Admittedly, it is very difficult to know just how much credit is owed to the animators, and which expressions or movements come purely from the actor, and which are just simply added in post-production. However, despite this, what Serkis does has been well documented and I definitely think that his extensive movements, expressions, voices etc are certainly facets of acting, and that he certainly does enough to be allowed to be considered for an Oscar, if the performance is good enough. Also, it can be argued that every Oscar nominated/ Oscar winning performance is down to a team of people, not just the individual. Some of this brilliant performance is surely somewhat down to the writing, the direction etc, and not just the singular actors performance. Because of these reasons, I think that motion capture performances should definitely be considered for Oscars, despite not being traditional acting performances. However, I do of course think that were there to be a motion capture performance nominated for an Oscar, it would have to genuinely be one of the top few performances from that year, and cannot just be awarded because motion capture acting has not been nominated before.

With the ‘Planet of the Apes’ franchise set to reach greater dramatic heights than ever with the new film, there is a good chance that Serkis’ third performance as Caesar could be his best yet, but this of course remains to be seen. But if his performance is as great as we are hoping it will be, I do think that Serkis should be able to be finally nominated for an Oscar for his performance, if it truly is one of the best of the year, and motion capture performances should be judged on a level playing field, it is just a matter of how good the performance and how great the character created is.