Trial Royale: Denzel Washington Movies, Round 1—Man of Drama

November 14, 2024·1 hr 24 min·5 clips

Joanna reads from Chadwick Boseman's 2019 speech about Denzel Washington, quoting: 'There is no Black Panther without Denzel Washington.'

Denzel Washington enters the coliseum. After the witch-movie trials, the panel rolls into another Trial Royale and gives the bracket to a huge filmography. Simple premise, immediate mess. Best Denzel Washington movie becomes a voting problem, a taste fight, and a reason to circle back through the movies that made people feel something. Four picks open the round. The hosts describe them as films with criticisms of America baked in, then let the talk wander the way this show likes to wander. The Pelican Brief gets more love than a tidy bracket would probably allow. One host admits loving it, rewatching it often, and being very into John Grisham at the time, without trying to make the fondness sound smarter than it is. Tucci's wigs get airtime too. That is the rhythm: joke, sidebar, then suddenly a sharper point about Washington and Hollywood. The Vanity Fair context does real work. A host reads from a 1995 cover story about Washington's rare A-list position after Crimson Tide, Malcolm X, and The Pelican Brief. The numbers land with a little bite. People naming him Sexiest Man Alive in 1996 feels less like trivia and more like late paperwork. Then the episode gets to the part that sticks. The host ties The Pelican Brief to Washington's reported refusal to play a romance with Julia Roberts's character. The reason is plain. He saw Black women as his main audience and did not want to disappoint them for a romance the movie did not need. The bracket still needs an answer, though. By the end, the hosts are pushing listeners to vote before a favorite gets stranded. Carlos makes his call: Malcolm X might win, but Philadelphia gets his vote because it made him cry.

As heard by us

A Trial Royale episode that treats Denzel's early-90s run as both a game and a real Hollywood argument.

Trial by Content uses its Trial Royale setup to examine Denzel Washington's 1990-1992 run with enough structure to keep the jokes from floating away.

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Why you'd press play

You want a Denzel showdown that actually argues about what the movies mean.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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