Denzel Washington (Training Day, American Gangster) vulnerable? Sure, we’ve seen that before. While there are more exceptions than rules, we have seen Washington play roles where his character doesn’t always have the answers or is susceptible to outcomes beyond his control. These films include Flight, Man on Fire, Out of Time, John Q, Fences, and He Got Game. But scared? Outside of John Q, I don’t know if there’s a movie where one of his characters has been so frantic that he is completely hidden from the confident and poised Denzel that we expect and love. All of that changes in Dan Gilroy’s Roman J. Israel Esq., his follow-up directorial performance after blazing onto the Hollywood landscape with 2014’s Nightcrawler.