Rahul Malhotra is a news writer at Collider specialising in box office coverage, and Indian cinema. He has been contributing to Collider for 3 years.
Among all the movies that deserve a second chance on streaming despite flopping at the box office, Roman J. Israel, Esq. must be at the top of the list. It’s both glossily mainstream, but almost entirely forgotten; it features a legendary star in Denzel Washington, but barely registered among his fans upon release; it’s also a follow-up to director Dan Gilroy’s widely acclaimed debut film Nightcrawler, but will always be unfavorably compared to that movie. All these contradictions make Roman J.
Originally released in 2017, the movie grossed just $13 million worldwide — $12 million of which came from domestic theaters — against a reported budget of just over $20 million. Roman J. Israel, Esq. featured Washington as a civil rights advocate and defense lawyer who earns just $500 a week in Los Angeles, but quietly happens to be a bit of a genius. He’s socially awkward, but devoted to his work.
Roman J. Israel, Esq.opened to mixed reviews, and currently sits at a “rotten” 55% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes; the audience score isn’t much better, at 57%. The site’s consensus reads, “Intriguing yet heavy-handed, Roman J. Israel, Esq. makes the most of — but never quite lives up to — Denzel Washington's magnetic performance in the title role.
This Wasn't One of Washington's Quieter Performances Washington earned his eighth Oscar nomination with the movie; he has since scored another acting nod, for The Tragedy of Macbeth. Washington is a two-time Academy Award winner, for his performances in Training Day, and Glory. Gilroy, on the other hand, scored an Oscar nod in the Best Original Screenplay category for Nightcrawler.
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