August Wilson (1945-2005) was a celebrated Pittsburgh, Penn.-born African-American playwright who is best known for his Pittsburgh Cycle, ten plays he wrote about black life in his native city, two of which won him Pulitzer Prizes. The first was for Fences in 1987, the second for The Piano Lesson in 1990. Until recently, more people were familiar with the second than the first, thanks to an award-winning 1995 Hallmark Hall of Fame production starring Charles S. Dutton and Alfre Woodard.

While the 1987 Broadway version of Fences won Tonys for Best Play, Director (Lloyd Richards), Actor (James Earl Jones), Featured Actress (Mary Alice), and two additional nominations for Best Featured Actor (Frankie Faison, Courtney B. Vance), its 2010 revival had a higher profile. That version won Tonys for Best Revival of a Play, Actor (Denzel Washington), Actress (Viola Davis) and six additional nominations including Best Featured Actor (Stephen Henderson).

Wilson wrote a draft of his play for the screen, but had insisted since 1987 that it could not be filmed unless it was directed by an African-American. It was only when Washington agreed to direct, that it was finally filmed, earning 2016 Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay (Wilson), Actor (Washington), and winning Best Supporting Actress for Viola Davis in the role that won her a Tony for Best Actress and her predecessor Mary Alice a Tony for Best Featured Actress. Also in the cast were Stephen Henderson, repeating his Tony-nominated role of Washington’s friend, along with Mykelti Williamson repeating his role of Washington’s mentally challenged brother, the part for which Frankie Faison received a Tony nomination in the 1987 version, and Jovan Adepo as Washington’s and Davis’s 17-year-old son, the role that earned Courtney B. Vance a Tony nomination in the 1987 version.

The film is set in the mid-1950s, where Washington’s embittered garbage collector lives a simple life in a poor neighborhood with his wife, their teenage son, a high-school football player, and at times, his mentally challenged brother who lost part of his skull in the war. His estranged 34-year-old son from his first wife, and his fellow garbage collector who is also his best friend, are the most frequent visitors to his home.

Washington’s main source of frustration is that since he was too old to become a major-league baseball player when the leagues began to admit black athletes, he refuses to receive the football recruiter for a college offering his son a scholarship, destroying his son’s chances at a successful sports career of his own. This, and the unexpected pregnancy of his previously unmentioned new girlfriend supply the crux of the conflict within the family.

The title refers to the fences of the ball park Washington used to hit balls over, as well as the fence he is building in his backyard and the figurative fences that people put around their guarded feelings. Davis, heartbreaking as his put-upon wife, provides the emotional center of the film.

Fences is available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

Legendary French actress Isabelle Huppert surprisingly won the lion’s share of U.S. 2016 awards for Best Actress for her portrayal of the resourceful rape victim in Elle over early Oscar favorites Amy Adams in Arrival, Ruth Negga in Loving, Natalie Portman in Jackie, Meryl Streep in Florence Foster Jenkins, and eventual winner Emma Stone in La La Land. It was surprising, not just because foreign language performances rarely win the preponderance of Oscar precursors, but because the film, directed by Paul Verhoeven (RoboCop, Basic Instinct), is a lot steamier than most Oscar contenders. It was originally planned as a Hollywood movie, but when Verhoeven selected Huppert over several A-list Hollywood stars, he decided to film it in Paris in Huppert’s native French.

The petite actress, who just turned 64, plays a 49-year-old career woman and looks amazing in the part. The film is a modern noir with the identity of Huppert’s rapist kept hidden until well into the film. Is it one of her rejected lovers, a subordinate at the video game company she owns, a neighbor, her own son, or someone else? If this isn’t her best performance, it’s certainly her best since Michael Haneke’s The Piano Teacher from fifteen years earlier.

Elle is available on Blu-ray and standard DVD.

One of last year’s most eagerly anticipated films, Morton Tyldum’s Passengers, suffered at the box-office by opening five days after the more rapturously received Rogue One. It also had the misfortune of not being on many critics’ ten-best lists and of not being in contention for any major awards. In these days of year-end awards being announced in late November and early December, weeks before Christmas releases can be seen, any film that does not appear on such lists is starting at a disadvantage. The reception for Passengers was a lot less welcoming than it was for Tyldum’s last film, 2014’s The Imitation Game

The film, which compares favorably to such highly successful recent science-fiction films as Gravity, Interstellar, and The Martian, may yet find its audience on home video.

Chris Pratt plays one of 5,000 passengers on a spaceship bringing them to a newly discovered habitable planet in another galaxy. He is awakened 90 years too early. His only companion for a little over a year is an android barkeep, played by Michael Sheen from the waist up. After wrestling with his conscience for months, he decides to wake up writer Jennifer Lawrence, letting her think that she, too, was awakened by a malfunction in her sleep chamber. They are joined briefly by dying crew member, Laurence Fishburne. The action doesn’t really kick in until the last third when Pratt and Lawrence are tasked with saving the ship and all the sleeping people on board. Until then it plays like a light, but winning, romantic comedy.

Passengers is available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

This week’s new releases include Miss Sloane and Sing.