Creed

i’m often asked why i don’t have Sinners rated higher or that i don’t consider it to be ryan coogler’s best work and this film is the reason why. no conversation can be had about this movie without addressing the cinematography, as both fights against leo and ricky feature such stunning long one-takes (and such beautifully intense lighting switches in the latter) that highlight jordan’s underrated screen presence in high-tempo scenes especially as young as he was while making this, and while the choreography hardly reflects the state of modern boxing as it pertains to major pay-per-view, my god do these scenes practically reach out of the screen and lean you forward. it’s one of the few sets of clips i find myself scrounging for on youtube every now and then for a quick thrill. and as for the rest of it, the grittiness of northern philly is so well captured and despite shots looking a bit gray at times, i think in the context of its predecessor series it does well in distinguishing itself but i am willing to concede that it came out in the heat of the general time period of Gray movies during the 2010s. unc stallone lowkey still got it, despite rocky balboa having existed as one of american cinema’s most iconic characters for decades, coogler and stallone work so well together in creating an entirely new dimensionality for the character that the final two original rocky movies more or less deflect in favor of attempting to let him go out in the ring: the creeping and undefeated mortality and the choice to fully pay it forward to the next generation. i think for a man who has represented an icon of “macho” for so long, he performs weakness and vulnerability so elegantly that i had little surprise in learning he was actually nominated for best supporting actor basically everywhere that year. he really is the gateway by which the film is able to achieve its most tremendous intimate moments, and i think coogler’s biggest feat is preserving that sense of closeness throughout a film that’s otherwise about the weight of living up to a legacy. the only thing that keeps this movie from being a full 5 stars for me is that tessa thompson as bianca basically disappears in the second half of the movie as her character is absolutely delightful in the opportunities the film does give her. otherwise, it is such an excellent evolution of ryan coogler’s filmmaking and the one i point to the most in getting to know his style, in only his SECOND major movie before the mcu nabbed him, a tragedy i mourn such that when i watch sinners i think “yup this is the guy who directed fruitvale station, creed, AND wakanda forever unfortunately.”