Blu-ray reviews: ‘Fences,’ ‘Elle’ and ‘Miss Sloane’

Here’s a trio of recent Blu-ray releases highlighting powerful performances from award-winning actresses.

Fences (Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment, rated PG-13, 139 minutes, 2.39:1 aspect ratio, $39.99) —Director Denzel Washington’s cinematic adaptation of August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning play offers a potent expose on an African-American family and its cultural and economic struggles in a suburb of Pittsburgh set in the 1950s.

Mr. Washington not only directed but also takes on the lead role of Troy Maxson, a former baseball star in the Negro Leagues who is now a bitter sanitation worker after never attaining his dream of becoming a Major League Baseball player.

This flawed but proud man fights for his place in society but often takes out his frustrations on his family and friends even crushing his son’s dream of becoming a football player.

An ensemble cast shines and includes Jovan Adepo and Russell Hornsby as his sons, Mykelti Williamson as his disabled brother and Stephen Henderson as his best friend.

Most importantly, Viola Davis co-stars as his faithful wife in a role that won her this year’s Academy-Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Although production design by David Gropman impresses in the digital transfer, this movie is about words and acting, and cinematographer Charlotte Bruus Christensen’s and editor Hughes Winborne’s shot selections take full advantage of the cast as they deliver Mr. Wilson’s fantastic dialogue flurries.

Best extras: Two 9-minute featurettes offer a look at the original, 1987 stage play, focused on the 2010 revival starring Mr. Washington and much of the movie cast, and its adaptation to the screen, including music and location design.

Interviews with the principal cast and play director Kenny Leon pay homage to Wilson’s work as well as shed light on the passion instilled in the performances.

Elle (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, rated R, 131 minutes, 2.39:1 aspect ratio, $30.99) — “Basic Instinct” director Paul Verhouven’s adaptation of Philippe Dijan’s novel delivered yet another study in disturbing human behavior last year in a potent psychological thriller.

Actress Isabelle Huppert plays Michèle Leblanc in a demanding, Golden Globe-winning and Academy Award- nominated performance that carries the movie.

Miss Leblanc is the head of a video game company dealing with a dysfunctional family (including a father in prison for his serial-killing exploits and a mother set to marry a much younger man). After being brutally raped in her home, she refuses to be a victim.

Not willing to trust law enforcement, she searches for her assailant who continues to stalk her, setting up multiple confrontations in this jarring tale of empowerment.

“Elle” is certainly a film for the acquired taste as the director delivers a story that explores the violence of men and the resiliency of women in a world where physical and sexual power dominate.

Home theater owners should note that the movie, performed in French, features subtitles that can distract from the performances (I wish I spoke the language) and has scenes of head-shaking sexual encounters.

Best extras: An 8-minute overview of the movie’s themes will enlighten as interviews with an animated Mr. Verhoeven and Miss Huppert really help explain some of the motivations in bringing this violently abstract film to the screen.

Even better, viewers get a 37-minute American Film Institute tribute to the lead actress, highlighted by a sit-down interview between Miss Huppert and “Hollywood Reporter” editor Stephen Galloway.

The very unassuming actress offers stories on her career, theater and film roles, her philosophies as an actor and work on “Elle” with Mr. Verhoeven.

Miss Sloane (Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, rated R, 132 minutes, 2.40:1 aspect ratio, $39.99) — Director John Madden teamed up with Golden Globe-nominated actress Jessica Chastain to offer a box-office-bombed opus last year on the ills of lobbying and the ever-evolving battle for gun control.

Home theater owners can now witness screenwriter Jonathan Perera’s effort that dips way too deep into the Aaron Sorkin’s story playbook.

Specifically, Miss Chastain stars as Elizabeth Sloane, a ruthless lobbyist willing to switch sides in getting a stricter gun control law passed while leaving her at odds with former employers fighting for the pro-gun side against the bill.

Looking ripped from one of Mr. Sorokin’s television series, “The Newsroom” or “The West Wing,” viewers get a tale loaded with snappy dialogue, inflated drama and rage outbursts stuffed within a liberal agenda.

Despite the methodical plot and propaganda dirge, Miss Chastain’ performance rises above as the calculating but flawed, win-to-a-fault character willing to cross any ethics line while others pay for her risks.

A worthy assembly of acting opponents includes Sam Waterston as her former boss, John Lithgow as a U.S. senator investigating her, and Michael Stuhlbarg as a former co-worker lobbying against her mission.

Best extras: Viewers only get an 11-minute overview of the production, touching more on the issues of the story, the art of lobbying and gun control, rather than the filmmaking process. Interviews with Mr. Madden, Mr. Perera, some of the cast and a lobbyist consultant support the segment.