Denzel Washington

About

Denzel Washington is a vintage cheddar, the proper kind, aged long enough to bite back. Nobody carries more authority into a room, and nobody knows better when to spend it. Start with Training Day. Alonzo is all charm and sharp edges, a man selling you a bad deal with a grin so warm you nearly sign, and Washington keeps the tang on the front of the tongue the whole film. Fences asks for the opposite. Troy holds court in a backyard, and the performance is in how the big voice keeps covering for a smaller, frightened man underneath. Malcolm X is several different men in one film, and he ages each one properly rather than just changing the glasses. Glory has a single close-up where he says nothing and it hits harder than any speech. Washington talks like a preacher and listens like a detective. A sharp cheese never needs to announce itself. You taste it the moment it lands.