Denzel Washington and Viola Davis embody their characters exquisitely in the play-turned movie, “Fences.” Set in Pittsburgh in the 1950’s Washington plays Troy Maxson, a lifelong garbage man. Davis is his long-suffering wife, Rose. Together with their son, Cory (Jovan Adepo), they constitute an endearing but dysfunctional family.

Just imagine three African-American women on the side of the road, their car broken down. It’s Hampton, Virgina in 1961 and a white police officer pulls over, suspicious. Once he hears they work for NASA, he changes his tune and offers them an escort so they won’t be late for work. As she’s driving, one of the women exclaims, “Three Negro women are chasing a white police officer down the highway in 1961. That is a God-ordained miracle.”

Shûsaku Endô (1923-1996) was a Japanese Catholic novelist whose extensive writings probed the conflicts and paradoxes of faith. He was born in Tokyo, lived in Manchuria, then returned to Japan and was baptized at about the age of 11. After university, he married, had a son and lived in France. The novelist Graham Greene, with whom Endo has often been compared, said he was "one of the finest living novelists" of his time.In 1966, Endô published Silence (Chinmoku), a wo...

Many critics have totally panned “Collateral Beauty” as being emotionally manipulative, unworthy of the acting talent collected in the film. I agree that it’s emotionally manipulative but it’s also inspirational and a heartwarming, if unrealistic, reminder to see the beauty all around us. Now, who couldn’t use that reminder from time to time, right?

Set in the immediate aftermath of the assassination of JFK, “Jackie,” is not your usual biopic. The film flits from point to point with no apparent logic but isn’t that what grief is like? That’s what we see here, a woman who has witnessed the brutal murder of her husband, only to have to shoulder, not only her own grief, but that of an entire nation.

“Manchester by the Sea” defies description in a really, really good way. It’s not flashy or formulaic in the way some fish-out-of-water stories are. Instead, the story of a quietly suffering man who gets another wrench thrown into his life when his brother dies captures better than any other film I’ve seen what real life is like.

"Loving," the latest film from director, Jeff Nichols (Midnight Special, Mud), shares the true story of Richard and Mildred Loving (Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga), a married couple who fought for the right to live together in the 1960’s.

Mel Gibson has done it again. "Hacksaw Ridge" is the cinematic event of 2016-2017. "HR" is the true story of Private Desmond Doss, a Seventh-Day Adventist from Virginia who enlists in World War II, but--as a conscientious objector--staunchly refuses to bear arms. Literally. He won't even touch a gun, let alone go through the required rifle training. His dream is to be a medic and save lives.

A new film aptly entitled "Denial"--about a famous Holocaust-denial court case--is a jewel.

"Birth of a Nation" is the dramatic story of Nat Turner, a slave who led a rebellion in Southampton County, Va., in 1831. The film is not a remake of the controversial 1915 silent film by D.W. Griffith, but reusing the same title is a powerful reminder of the role the institution of the slave trade and slavery played in the founding of the United States.