Roman J. Israel, Esq.

And he had a fairly good run to start that 2000s area, basically until I think about American Gangster.

And then he had kind of a blip where he was off for maybe a couple of years and then started having all of those consecutive Oscar nominations for like Roman J. Israel and Flight.

where it was just like, I'm going to be Denzel, I'm going to show up, I'm going to do a movie, and I'm going to be Denzel, and that's going to earn me an Oscar nomination.

It was kind of like Meryl Streep for a few years.

And instead, I loved it.

Roman J. Israel Esquire, 2017.

I mean, Denzel Washington is always great, but he plays Roman J. Israel, an idealistic defense attorney whose life gets upended when his boss and mentor, a legendary civil rights icon, dies unexpectedly.

And then he's recruited to join a law firm that's led by this ambitious lawyer who was one of his mentor's former students.

And his legacy of activism gets put to the test when he takes on the case of a young man accused of murdering a convenience store clerk This is pure hidden gem.

This is not an Oscar movie, but this is a hidden gem.

And it's got one of the most ridiculous titles, like Roman J. Israel Esquire.

But it's so worth seeing.