New movie review: Creed

Michael B. Jordan stars as Adonis Johnson in writer-director Ryan Coogler's excellent Creed.

A lot of us probably went through the five stages of movie reboot grief when the announcement came that there was a new Rocky movie in the works. Denial – Well, movies get announced all the time; that doesn’t mean anyone’s actually going to make it. Anger – How dare they ruin the legacy of a classic character like Rocky Balboa? Bargaining – As long as they respect the history of the originals, maybe it will be okay. Depression – They’re really going through with this, eh? Acceptance – Looks like it comes out around Thanksgiving; I guess it’s that or see Spectre again.

Only, I never had any trepidation about the new film because it has one thing no other reboot, remake, or sequel has: writer-director Ryan Coogler. Sure enough, under the steady, guiding hand of one of the best young filmmakers in the business, Creed is a crowd-pleasing triumph that takes a world we loved and updates it for the world we know.

Those folks nervous about a return to this universe probably had good reason to be. Sometimes in boxing, a fighter comes back one too many times – hell, it is the plot of at least three Rocky movies – but that fighter is rarely infused with this much new blood, new energy, and new life. Coogler and co-writer Aaron Covington, who worked closely with Sylvester Stallone in developing the script, have a firm grasp of both the established world of the film and the next-generation story they want to tell. As such, Creed shines as a stirring, bold standalone film and a worthy successor to the Rocky franchise.

Coogler reteams with his Fruitvale Station star Michael B. Jordan to tell the story of Adonis Johnson, son of Rocky rival and friend Apollo Creed. Adonis spends his youth in and out of group homes and juvenile detention centers until he is taken in by Apollo’s widow, Mary Anne (Phylicia Rashad). She brings him up with the intention of getting him away from fighting, but he proves to be his father’s son, seemingly genetically drawn to the ring.

Jordan and Sylvester Stallone in Creed.

Because of the way Apollo died, however, no trainer of worth will take on Adonis, so he moves to Philadelphia to seek counsel from the long-retired Rocky. The former heavyweight champion, now restauranteur, whose life has been defined mostly by struggle and loss, is initially reluctant, but he has the same fighting gene as Apollo and Adonis, and he cannot stay away. Now, with Rocky in his corner, Adonis seeks to build his own legacy and escape the darkness of the long shadow cast by his father.

Stallone wrote the first six Rocky movies and directed four of them, and his handle on the character he created is as strong now as it was nearly 40 years ago. Across seven films in five different decades, Stallone has never lost sight of the sweet, quiet guy with a champion’s heart that made Rocky so lovable and popular. When Adonis takes a photo on his phone and tells Rocky he has uploaded it to the cloud, Stallone’s brief, curious glance up at the sky tells us all we need to know about the character. This is still our Rocky.

All credit, though, goes to Coogler, who developed the original story for this film, for keeping the focus squarely on Adonis. As important as Stallone is to the character and Rocky is to the plot, Creed is not a Rocky movie. Rocky is in the final act of his life, while Adonis is in the first act of his. So, while it may be fun to see one of our favorite old characters brought back one more time, the real draw is watching Adonis’ story develop and, by extension, Jordan’s remarkable performance.

It is hard to say maybe from where you might know Jordan best. His first major onscreen work came in The Wire. Later came recurring roles on Friday Night Lights and Parenthood. I caught my first real glimpse of him in the excellent 2012 found-footage movie Chronicle, but his real breakout came two years ago in Coogler’s acclaimed true-life drama Fruitvale Station as the doomed Oscar Grant. In all of these parts, Jordan has been impressive, but in both his physical and emotional commitment to Adonis, we see him stretch his range further than he ever has. If this is an indication of things to come for Jordan, it will be exciting to see where he chooses to go next.

Jordan and Tessa Thompson in Creed.

Jordan provides Adonis with a rough exterior and pained interior that make the audience root for him to grow, and he does with Rocky’s training and a burgeoning romance with Bianca (Tessa Thompson). Bianca is the rare female character in a sports movie with her own story and her own complex life experiences, and Thompson gives her the inner strength to match Adonis blow for emotional blow. A singer-songwriter with degenerative hearing loss, she does not need Adonis to make her whole, but they each benefit from having the other in their lives.

With all the pieces in place – a superb cast delivering great performances, a killer story, and a willing audience – all that is left is to deliver the knockout punch, and Coogler’s direction sure does deliver that. I had the chance to meet Coogler last year around this time when he and Jordan were at the Lincoln Center in New York City for a script reading of Do the Right Thing as part of #BlackOutBlackFriday.

Coogler grew up in the East Bay in Northern California, where I was also raised. I told him how much it meant to me to see the area I grew up in portrayed so vibrantly and so accurately on screen in Fruitvale Station. In our brief chat, he came off as a smart, passionate filmmaker who cares deeply about his subjects. The remarkable thing about Coogler is how he is able to bring that same passion and care he showed in his much more intimate first film to a large-scale, sports movie franchise. Creed is a characters-first movie, and every choice the director makes is in service of those characters.

For Adonis’ first fight with Rocky as his trainer, the entire bout is filmed in one extended take that boggles the mind for its technical prowess and emotional intensity. For those 10 minutes, every one of us is Adonis, sweating, bleeding, dealing punches, taking them, and simply trying to stay on our feet. It is a painful but rewarding experience and a beautiful microcosm of the film around it. To climb out of the shadows, Adonis must battle the darkness around him and within him, but when he reaches the light, the fight will have made it that much brighter and that much warmer.

See it? Yes.

New movie review: Dear White People

Tessa Thompson (center) stars as Sam White in Justin Simien's Dear White People.

It is provocative. It is a discussion starter. It is an important topic. It means well – but the road to hell, as they say, is paved with good intentions. Justin Simien’s debut feature, Dear White People, has all the makings of a message film filtered through the sensibilities of a satirical comedy-drama. That it mostly succeeds at comedy and mostly fails at drama is beside the point. The goal of this feature is to hold a mirror up to the culture and show us where we have gone wrong. What appears in the reflection will say more about the viewer than the film.

Race remains a lightning-rod issue in all corners of society. Polite conversation can devolve into uninformed political rhetoric and outright anger just by bringing race into the discussion. Most people would rather avoid the topic altogether and tuck it away with their talking points about religion and politics until they find like-minded folks with whom they can just nod their heads.

This is particularly true if you find yourself among the white people in “mixed” company, whatever that means anymore. Maybe you try to steer the conversation away from controversy or just bite your tongue altogether. God forbid you should offend someone or, worse, be called a racist. Do you know who is most afraid of being labeled racist? Racists.

Dialogue is good. Discussion is good. Hell yes, debate is good. In one of Dear White People’s many “that is so true” moments, firebrand radio host Sam White, played by Tessa Thompson, announces on her show that white people who use the term “African American” because they are afraid of saying “black” should just go ahead and say “nigger” because that is what they want to say anyway.

The moment is played for laughs but is in reality an instance of bracing honesty. This film is speaking to a generation of 18- to 25-year-olds who want to ignore race, move past it, and pretend they do not see color. Their intentions are good, but those road signs you see point directly to hell. We will not get past issues by claiming we are above them. We will get past them by diving down into the mud and fighting. Controversy should be courted and confronted.

In this respect, Dear White People is a noble and necessary effort. Any film that fosters intelligent debate among people with differing views should be seen far and wide; however, I cannot say the conversations this film starts will necessarily be intelligent. The problem lies in the prevalence of the aforementioned “that is so true” moments, which are this film’s stock-in-trade.

It bears repeating that race is a tough topic to tackle on film. Most people just do not want to hear it, and when they do, it makes them defensive. “I would never say that” or “I could never do something like that” are the familiar refrains of moviegoers confronted with a reality they hoped not to acknowledge, but the oft-ignored fact is: It does not matter what you would do or have done; all that matters is that it is done.

Remember, we are living in the time of President Barack Obama and a generation of teenagers and young adults who vowed to be better about these kinds of things, definitely better than their parents’ generation and the generations before that. The president of the fictional Ivy League university featured in Dear White People even says at one point, “Racism is over.” And would you believe there are people, smart people, who believe this to be true?

The problem with Dear White People’s satirical approach to storytelling is that it gives audience members permission to laugh at themselves. Rather than challenge viewers to think critically about the roles they play in oppression, racism, and inequality, it lets them off the hook with its artifice of humor. As a result, people are most likely to leave the theater joking with their friends about how “that is so true,” sharing a chuckle, and wondering what they are going to get for dinner.

One of the biggest drawbacks of the film is that Simien tries to cram too much story and too many characters into an already bloated hour and 50-minute runtime. The radio host at the center of everything is Thompson's lived-in take on a mixed-race woman trying to embrace her essential blackness. There is Tyler James Williams as Lionel Higgins, whose identity crisis comes from the fact that he does not conform to typical black stereotypes. Kyle Gallner plays Kurt Fletcher, whose successful father bullies him into actively avoiding those same stereotypes. And Teyonah Parris is Colandrea “Coco” Conners, who wants notoriety and recognition any way she can get it.

Those are just the main characters. There are about a half-dozen side characters whose stories we are asked to follow and concern ourselves with, as well as a complex and contradictory web of motivations for all of them. Streamlining would have done Simien’s film a world of good. For all the interlocking plots and showy storytelling devices, the central theme of the movie boils down to this: How can a black person be the most honest version of himself or herself in a predominantly white culture?

It is a powerful thesis question, enough for a whole series of films on the black experience in America. That would be an exciting project, something I would be first in line for every time. Instead, Simien gives us a picture with so much to say that it is constantly tripping over its tongue trying to get it all out. I am glad this film was made. I am energized by the idea that people may ask questions about their prejudices and the prejudice they see. But Dear White People is better in its design than its execution, and I am sad to report this probably will not be the film that exposes the cracks in the broken veneer of social harmony.

Having already discussed movies like Pride and Gone Girl in this space, it is hard not to think we are in a year of movies with important things to say about the society we have built but with no idea how to get their messages across. They intend to provoke. They intend to start discussions. They intend a lot of good things, but it is not enough. We need to move beyond good intentions and embrace positive actions. If we cannot do that, then I guess I will see you in hell.

See it? Yes.