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Two Cents is an original column akin to a book club for films. The Cinapse team will program films and contribute our best, most insightful, or most creative thoughts on each film using a maximum of 200 words each. Guest writers and fan comments are encouraged, as are suggestions for future entries to the column. Join us as we share our two cents on films we love, films we are curious about, and films we believe merit some discussion.

The Pick

For years, Guillermo del Toro was the best kept open secret among genre film fans. Cultishly adored for his gonzo Gothic superhero blockbusters (Blade II, Hellboy) and his spellbinding, nigh-on-uncategorizable (totally a word, shut up) Spanish-language fantasies (including his debut Cronos, and this week’s pick The Devil’s Backbone), del Toro nonetheless has struggled to get his films made. And even when they did get made, the results often confounded audiences and marketing execs alike.

We knew he was something special, it was getting everyone else on board that posed a problem.

Maybe that’s why del Toro’s dual triumph on Oscar night last Sunday was so gratifying. His latest film, The Shape of Water, has rightly been lauded as a masterpiece, and del Toro went home with awards for Best Director and Best Picture. What’s maybe most gratifying about Shape’s acclaim is that del Toro sacrificed nothing of his own voice to achieve such success. There’s no other filmmaker alive who could or would have conceived of such an idea, nor executed it in the manner which he did. Love it or hate it (or begrudge it for winning Oscars you wish had gone to Get Out), The Shape of Water is a truly singular film, from one of the most distinct voices currently working in cinema.

We wanted to honor del Toro’s achievement by taking a look at some of his earlier work. While it is debatable if The Devil’s Backbone is del Toro’s best film, it may be remembered as the single most important feature in his career.

Cronos had debuted to rave reviews and major awards, but del Toro’s attempts to follow it up had largely ended in failure. He wrote screenplays that no one wanted to produce, pushed for jobs that went to others. His dream movies sat, unrealized by an industry that could not understand them. When he did manage to wrestle a movie into existence, it was the heavily compromised Mimic, a movie whose development and production went so miserably that del Toro has since cited the process as one of the two most miserable periods in his life. The other worst? His father being kidnapped.

The Devil’s Backbone is the film that finally fulfilled the promise of that first feature, announcing to the world that del Toro was a world class talent that could not be ignored. Set during the Spanish Civil War, Backbone follows young, newly orphaned Carlos (Fernando Tielve) as he is dropped off at a remote orphanage. Adults and children alike wait in purgatorial uncertainty for the war to arrive or end, but Carlos’ arrival inadvertently awakens all the buried secrets that these people have kept from one another, setting the inhabitants on a collision course for disaster.

And we haven’t even mentioned the ghost yet… — Brendan

Next Week’s Pick:

Angelina Jolie is so much a part of our cinema fabric these days that we probably take her for granted. We know her as an accomplished actress, director, humanitarian, and mother, but in 2001 she had a bad girl image and was just starting to transition as an actress from edgy indies to massive mainstream recognition. As a new Tomb Raider reboot hits theaters, join us in revisiting one of Jolie’s breakout roles as the globe-trotting adventurer and polygonal protagonist of 2001’s video game adaptation Tomb Raider (aka Lara Croft: Tomb Raider), streaming on Netflix and recently released on 4K Blu-ray! — Austin

Would you like to be a guest in next week’s Two Cents column? Simply watch and send your under-200-word review to twocents(at)cinapse.co anytime before midnight on Thursday!

Our Guest

Husain Sumra:

I’d seen every Guillermo del Toro film — except for The Devil’s Backbone. Going back and seeing it fresh off The Shape of Water, and fresh off del Toro’s public declaration for his love of monsters, it’s incredible how far he’s come.

I’m not talking about craft or telling a story, The Devil’s Backbone is a confident film that knows what it wants to say. I’m more impressed by how the seeds of del Toro’s entire filmography are laid out here. He has always believed that monsters are “others” who are pointed to as scapegoats, for we are the true monsters.

In Devil’s Backbone, del Toro uses this idea to play with the most famous monsters of all: ghosts. He turns away from using ghosts as malevolent figures out to kill any human that comes in contact with it, instead sketching out a sad story that puts you on the side of the ghost.

I mean, even his explanation of a ghost, as a moment of pain frozen in time, like a blurred photograph, is so heartbreaking that any fear you may have had for ghosts evaporates. (@hsumra)

The Team

Justin Harlan:

Very few people can make me feel such a huge range of emotions within as short a time frame as can Guillermo del Toro. While I’ve yet to see The Shape of Water and a few of his other films, I’ve enjoyed all of his films that I’ve seen. His ability to make me feel sheer terror, heart wrenching pain, and a romantic swoon all within mere moments of each other is nothing short of genius.

The Devil’s Backbone is proof that he’s had this innate ability to capture and manipulate human emotion since early on. The ghostly scares are chilling, the psychological pain is effective, and the heart in the film is truly brilliant.

Not sure why I waited this long to watch, but it’s a pretty great film that I’ll certainly revisit soon. Congrats to GDT, for finally being recognized for the genius he is. (@ThePaintedMan)

Brendan Foley:

Guillermo del Toro’s first true masterpiece (Cronos is great, but it’s not quite there yet. There’s a coldness to that film, whereas his later endeavors are bursting at the seams with heart), The Devil’s Backbone is the sort of ghost story that makes you want to run up and smack all the peddlers of cheap jump scares and shaking cameras and say, “THIS. THIS IS WHAT YOU COULD BE MAKING.” Because while The Devil’s Backbone nails the prerequisite creeps and freaks when called for (including an all-timer sequence where young Carlos is pursued by the ghost through the darkened orphanage) and features violence that still makes me squirm even after several viewings, del Toro is not content with base thrills.

The Devil’s Backbone reaches deeper than that, asking, right from the outset, what even is a ghost? There are ghosts in the sense of memories that will not fade, old hurts that refuse to heal. There are ghosts in the sense of relics from earlier lives that linger onward, informing the present in ways that the living can barely comprehend. And there are ghosts in the sense of tragedies that continue to ripple forward, unanswered, violences that can never be undone. And yes, there is also an actual, literal ghost, and it is a triumph of design and special effects, but that’s only one small part of what del Toro is playing at.

What strikes me anew each time I watch the film is just how beautiful it is, even as it delves into truly ugly places. Most every frame could be singled out and serve as an independent work of art, del Toro’s early mastery of the iconic creating images that are by turns lovely and grotesque and evocative and, yes, haunting.

I could go on and on, but this is meant to be bite-sized bits of commentary. Suffice to say that even in del Toro’s incredible filmography, The Devil’s Backbone is a wondrous standout, unlike anything he’d made before or since. It’s a treasure, to be treasured. (@theTrueBrendanF)

Austin Vashaw:

After starting to become familiar with the name “Guillermo del Toro” for his horror-tinged action spectaculars Hellboy and Blade II, it was The Devil’s Backbone that introduced me to his larger body of work. Its incredible trailer promised a beautiful looking ghost story full of moody cinematography and wartime somberness. I blind bought the DVD and fell in love with it, cementing my adoration of del Toro and causing me to declare him my favorite director and seek out his other films, all of them, immediately (including a $30 copy of the then-rare and extremely hard to find Cronos, of dubious legitimacy).

I think Brendan correctly calls The Devil’s Backbone del Toro’s first masterpiece, and it remains one of his most compelling stories (and inhabits a special place as one of his Trilogía of Spanish language films). There’s so much to say about this film but it navigates horror, heart, and human monsters in a way that would come to be recognized as a signature of del Toro’s genius, and effectively utilizes minimal but incredible special effects work to enhance, rather than overpower, its story. It’s also a perfect thematic pairing with my other GdT favorite Pan’s Labyrinth, highlighting the fantastical and terrifying fairy tale worlds of children, set against the even greater horrors of the Spanish Civil War. (@VforVashaw)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90o1YhN0vHY

Heartfelt congratulations to Guillermo del Toro on his Best Director and Best Picture Academy Awards!

Next week’s pick:

https://www.netflix.com/title/60004467

Two Cents is an original column akin to a book club for films. The Cinapse team will program films and contribute our best, most insightful, or most creative thoughts on each film using a maximum of 200 words each. Guest writers and fan comments are encouraged, as are suggestions for future entries to the column. Join us as we share our two cents on films we love, films we are curious about, and films we believe merit some discussion.

The Pick

There’s never really been anything like the Cloverfield franchise in cinema before: a sequence of largely-but-not-totally disconnected genre films, each featuring a completely different story, style, cast, etc.

Yet even more noteworthy than the films themselves is the seeming game of oneupmanship that series mastermind JJ Abrams plays against himself to see how he can generate the most surprise and attention with the release of each subsequent film.

The original Cloverfield had its trailer dropped on unsuspecting audiences without even so much as a title. Just a shockingly gripping tease and a release date, months away. The Internet was immediately thrown into a desperate search to learn just what the film was, with some of the more out-there theories including that Cloverfield was actually a live-action Voltron movie (because a voice screaming, “It’s alive!” sounded like, “It’s a lion!”).

10 Cloverfield Lane took an entirely different approach, suddenly appearing on people’s radar only a month in advance. ‘They made a Cloverfield sequel? With Ramona Flowers and John Goodman and that Newsroom dude? It doesn’t look anything like Cloverfield!?! What is going on?!?’ Once again, the Internet stopped dead in its track trying to crack this particular mystery box.

But ol’ JJ may have outdone himself with The Cloverfield Paradox. Developed independently as a script entitled ‘The God Particle’, Paradox was (like Lane) converted into a Cloverfield film and sneaked through production with no one the wiser as to what the film was about or what it contained. When Paramount panicked and decided not to release the film (similar to their abandoning of this week’s Annihilation), Netflix stepped up and bought the film. The Cloverfield Paradox was announced and released on the same night, revealed to America’s biggest audience right in the middle of the Super Bowl.

‘They made another Cloverfield? And it’s in SPACE? What is going on?!?’

Once the surprise wore off, the response to the actual film proper was deeply divisive, with some enjoying the splatter-ific space freakout while many others blanched at what they perceived as the film’s sloppy storytelling and derivative nature.

Well, let it never be said that Two Cents isn’t on the cutting edge of the current cinema landscape. So join us as we dive headfirst into examining The Cloverfield Paradox.

Next Week’s Pick:

You love Aardman Animation. Even if you don’t know that you love them, you love Aardman Animation. Between the Wallace & Gromit shorts and feature film, Chicken Run, and their additional work in films, television, and commercials, the stop motion studio has created a look, voice, and tone that is instantly recognizable and entirely their own.

A Grand Night In: The Story of Aardman originally aired on the BBC in anticipation of the studio’s 40th anniversary. Featuring interviews with luminaries like Matt Groening and Terry Gilliam, A Grand Night In provides an inside look at how movie magic was born.

A Grand Night In is currently available on Netflix Instant.

Our Guests

Nick Spacek:

Don’t focus on how upset you are that The Cloverfield Paradox doesn’t fit into the Cloververse as well as 10 Cloverfield Lane, or that it’s not the movie you were expecting. It’s frustrating enough that the film — a really odd, strangely funny movie about dimensional travel, coupled with some intriguing horror elements — has so much going on that it already feels like two movies poorly-stitched together, even without the additional Cloverfield elements.

Let’s be fair: Chris O’Dowd steals every scene he’s in, and damn if his story isn’t the most intriguing. The arm thing? Brilliant and way under-explored. The familial story line which is arguably the driving narrative focus of the film would be great if there wasn’t all this other stuff going on otherwise, but there’s just too much happening to also jump back to Earth Prime every fifteen minutes. It’s a damned shame, because underneath everything, there’s a really great story with some great ideas.

I wanted it to be a little better balanced in terms of what it offered, but it was still an entertaining flick with the base film, underneath the alien invasion stuff, is solid fun. Definitely had possibilities left untouched, but here’s to hoping that the next film in the Cloververse is more than an otherwise entertaining concept with some monsters tacked on. (@nuthousepunks)

Brendan Agnew (The Norman Nerd):

This is not a very good movie, but…I had a pretty darn good time with it?

Honestly, I don’t have much deeper insight than that. I admire the original Cloverfield more than I enjoy watching it (though it made for a very effective theatrical experience), and I love 10 Cloverfield Lane largely for all the things it does before the Act 3 blowout…which I also love. Paradox fits somewhere in the middle, with a janky script that features a solid hook to hang “escalating sci-fi weirdness” on and a killer cast, but doesn’t actually hang together as a story all that well.

But fuck me if the players don’t keep me invested anyway. Gugu Mbatha-Raw practically carries the film on her back and manages a solid emotional throughline that both kept me invested in her and more patient with the franchise-serving diversions, and memorable beats from folks like Chris O’Dowd, Zhang Ziyi, and Daniel Bruhl walk a fine line between genre awareness and genuine tragedy that makes the doomed Cloverfield Station bear more weight than the patchy writing should imbue.

So…sorry, I like it. I can’t mount a passionate defense for it or anything, but — while it’s no Sunshine — I’d sooner revisit this version of goofy space science gibberish than, say, Event Horizon. (@BLCAgnew)

https://cinapse.co/pick-of-the-week-sunshine-2007-8dac8c0e3d2b

The Team

Ed Travis:

Netflix is a disrupter, and it’s just fun to watch them work. From the Super Bowl ad campaign and surprise drop of The Cloverfield Paradox to its purchase of the film from Paramount in the first place, Netflix has a big PR win on their hands. Unfortunately they’ve also got a genuinely bad movie. Unlike most bad movies, The Cloverfield Paradox is actually filled with good things. A cast to die for, great production design and cinematography, strong visual effects, and even an intriguing hook (combined with the aforementioned history-making secret Super Bowl drop) are not enough to save this film from its abysmal script. Going completely off the rails in its second act and building to an eye roll of an ending, The Cloverfield Paradox squanders all it has going for it in a spectacular fashion with an absolutely nonsense space horror conceit that both feels derivative (of better films like Alien or even Event Horizon) and chaotic, following no rules or logic and simply throwing things at an airlock until it eventually bursts. While the cast is [mostly] uniformly good, only Chris O’Dowd comes close to saving the film by seemingly live-trolling it from within the film (hilariously). (@Ed_Travis)

Justin Harlan:

For this sc-fi/horror fan and rabid Clover-verse enthusiast, the film is a pretty decent film that fits into the universe quite well as a new flavor of just what this Cloverfield endeavor seems to be embracing. The cast is fantastic, the story is entertaining, and the overall product is quite satisfying on many levels. That overly scientific jargon that some have complained about is a staple of space oriented science fiction — a staple I certainly embrace in the subgenre. The confusing moments in the plot feel intentionally so and are mostly ironed out as the film moves forward. And, as noted above, the performances from the cast are very strong. (@ThePaintedMan)

— Justin wrote a full review which you should check out below!

https://cinapse.co/pick-of-the-week-sunshine-2007-8dac8c0e3d2b

Brendan Foley:

What a mess. While not nearly the unmitigated disaster that the immediate reactions after the Super Bowl had me prepared for, the simple fact is that The Cloverfield Paradox is a script that was nowhere near ready to be shot, a movie that was nowhere near ready to be released, and idea that was nowhere nearly fully developed before it was written, shot, and dumped onto Netflix.

What amounts to three or four different sci-fi premises (all highly derivative of other, established films that those above me have already name-dropped) stapled together into a shapeless whole that never once coalesces into a complete and distinctive whole. The cast is hugely appealing, particularly the lead turns by David Oyelowo and Gugu Mbatha-Raw, both of whom put on strong movie star showcases, but they are all playing vaguely defined types instead of fully realized characters. Shifty German Guy, Funny Irish Guy, Religious Latino, etc. The movie expends zero energy into trying to establish them as empathetic humans, so when the film turns into an orgy of nonsensical disasters and weirdness, none of it resonates.

With more time and more polish, it’s possible that Paradox could have been the same sort of engaging genre adventure like the other Cloverfield films, but this finished product is like uncooked dough. (@theTrueBrendanF)

Watch it on Netflix:

https://cinapse.co/pick-of-the-week-sunshine-2007-8dac8c0e3d2b

Next week’s pick:

https://cinapse.co/pick-of-the-week-sunshine-2007-8dac8c0e3d2b

Two Cents is an original column akin to a book club for films. The Cinapse team will program films and contribute our best, most insightful, or most creative thoughts on each film using a maximum of 200 words each. Guest writers and fan comments are encouraged, as are suggestions for future entries to the column. Join us as we share our two cents on films we love, films we are curious about, and films we believe merit some discussion.

The Pick

When Black Panther first arrived in Captain America: Civil War, it felt like he arrived fully-formed as a new screen icon. Whereas other comic book characters can take multiple films (or multiple franchises) to get fully fleshed out, T’Challa, ruler of Wakanda and wearer of the Black Panther mantle, needed only a few moments to cement himself as one of the MCU’s heavy hitters.

The same could be said for Chadwick Boseman, who seemed to explode onto the scene out of nowhere when he tackled first Jackie Robinson, then James Brown, before being handed the role of Black Panther. Boseman actually toiled for years in one-off TV appearances and a handful of supporting roles in films, at one point even considering giving up acting to focus on directing. But when he nabbed the role of Jackie Robinson in Brian Helgeland’s 42, Boseman started to receive the recognition he deserved, and it wasn’t too long before Marvel came calling.

Now, Black Panther looks set to re-write the rules for superhero cinema and mainstream filmmaking in general. A stunning achievement for Boseman, writer/director Ryan Coogler, and all involved, Black Panther seems primed to be less a movie, and more a cultural phenomenon.

While everyone is hyped for some of that sweet, sweet Wakanda action, Two Cents decided to celebrate with another Boseman-led effort, 2016’S Message from the King. Boseman plays Jacob King, an imposing, mysterious visitor to LA from South Africa, who gets off a plane with the sole intention of locating his troubled younger sister. Before too long, the sister is discovered in a morgue drawer, and Jacob sets off on a rampage through the underground element of the city of stars, determined to find out who is responsible and send them a message they will never forget.

Next Week’s Pick:

The Cloverfield Paradox was the talk of the Super Bowl thanks to its unorthodox marketing method, dropping completely unannounced onto the biggest televised advertising event of the year. But as Netflix gains a reputation for being a dumping ground for high-risk movies, is this a science fiction victory for the platform, or a head-scratcher for people not sure what to make of this franchise’s identity?

The Team

Justin Harlan:

Message from the King is 100% about how awesome Chadwick Boseman is as a quiet and unassuming badass. Along with a chain he bought for a few bucks at a hardware store, Boseman’s Jacob King tears through crooked dentists, Eastern European mobsters, and Draco Malfoy.

The rest of the cast is solid, the story is compelling, and the direction is strong… but… this film really is the Chadwick Boseman show. He’s amazing here and watching this only made me that much more excited to visit Wakanda. (@ThePaintedMan)

Brendan Foley:

It’s fine.

The assembled talent all work to enliven their stock characters with nuance and dimension, but that only draws attention to the fact that they are, in fact, all playing pretty stock characters. Teresa Palmer, for example, throws herself headfirst into finding something raw and real within her hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold character, but there’s no escaping that what she’s playing is a hooker with a heart of gold, there to aid Boseman’s King when he’s down, and be rescued by him when things turn ugly.

Boseman powers through the film with movie star magnetism, but again I’m hard-pressed to find anything about this film to suggest why it was distinctive enough for him to jump aboard. It’s a fairly by-the-numbers little potboiler, of a kind that was already played out 20 years ago when Soderbergh went all post-modern on the form with The Limey. Message from the King is a compelling, easy watch, but it’s neither fun enough to enjoy as lurid pulp, nor strong enough to transcend its genre roots. It’s just sort of there, well-made but unremarkable.(@TheTrueBrendanF)

Austin Vashaw:

Message From The King isn’t anything you haven’t already seen before. It follows your pretty standard revenge-action plot with a badass dude setting out to (find/avenge) his (missing/dead) (wife/daughter/sister) after she gets wrapped up in the underground (drugs/sex) trade. It’s a lot like The Horseman, Hardcore, or The Limey, and probably a few others.

That said, it’s still a solid action movie with a lots of neat cast members popping in as villains, like Luke Evans and Tom Felton. And in a time when Hollywood perversions are under the microscope, Alfred Molina has a memorable role as a powerful media mogul and criminally-connected pedophile.

Boseman’s character is a bit stoic, but it doesn’t stop you from connecting with his pain or moral indignation, or perking up with anticipation whenever his bicycle chain comes out to tear up some fool. (@VforVashaw)

Ed Travis

Can’t wait for Black Panther? This badass revenge film starring T’Challa himself, Chadwick Boseman, flew way too far under the radar and it’s on Netflix right now. Similar to The Limey, this is an outsider trying to find out what happened to one of his family members and physically harming a lot of bad people in the process. You’ll never look at a motorcycle chain the same ever again.

Ed selected Message From The King as a runner-up in his Top Action Films of 2017.

https://cinapse.co/ed-travis-top-10-action-films-of-2017-74d022e45dc3

Watch it on Netflix:

https://cinapse.co/ed-travis-top-10-action-films-of-2017-74d022e45dc3

Next week’s pick:

https://cinapse.co/ed-travis-top-10-action-films-of-2017-74d022e45dc3

Two Cents is an original column akin to a book club for films. The Cinapse team will program films and contribute our best, most insightful, or most creative thoughts on each film using a maximum of 200 words each. Guest writers and fan comments are encouraged, as are suggestions for future entries to the column. Join us as we share our two cents on films we love, films we are curious about, and films we believe merit some discussion.

The Pick

It seems hard to believe that after a decade of interconnected films and TV shows, a new Marvel movie could still register as exciting (no, it’s not. What is this crazyness you speak? — Austin). After all, they crank a couple of these things out every year, with the reliability and precision of a Swiss watch. The Marvel Cinematic Universe should long ago have become pat, unremarkable product.

But Black Panther is drawing a buzz unlike any other superhero film before it, even after the banner year for the genre that saw the release of everything from Logan to Wonder Woman to Jeff Goldblum Space Orgy: Ragnarok. Excitement for the film has been steadily mounting since Chadwick Boseman made a huge first impression in Captain America: Civil War, and that anticipation is reaching a fever pitch with the film only week away and the early reviews sounding down-right evangelical.

Black Panther’s quality and appeal should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with director Ryan Coogler and star Michael B. Jordan’s previous film, Creed. With only one other feature film under his belt (the hugely acclaimed Fruitvale Station), Coogler somehow coerced Sylvester Stallone into allowing him to co-write and direct a new entry in the Rocky series (thought to have conclusively wrapped up with 2006’s well-liked Rocky Balboa).

Creed stars Jordan as Adonis “Donny” Creed, the long-lost love child of Rocky’s rival, mentor, and friend Apollo Creed. Donny was born after Apollo’s fatal bout with Ivan Drago in Rocky IV, spending his whole life in the shadow of a man he has never known. With a fire in his gut that he can only express in the boxing ring, Donny sets out to create his own legacy, recruiting an initially reluctant Rocky to be his manager.

Creed took audiences by storm in 2015, stunning both die-hard Rocky fans and newcomers to the franchise. It catapulted Jordan, Coogler, and Tessa Thompson (as Bianca, Donny’s ambitious, take-no-shit girlfriend) into the A-List, and earned Stallone some of the highest praise of his career, including a Best Supporting Actor nomination at that year’s Oscars. (We also hear it “stars” Cinapse writer and Philadelphian Liam O’Donnell as a blink-and-miss-him extra).

With Black Panther set to rewrite the game entirely — and with the Philadelphia Eagles animating a true-life underdog story by toppling the New England Patriots in last week’s Super Bowl — we thought it only fitting to take one last run through the mean streets of Philly and give Creed its moment in the spotlight.

Next Week’s Pick:

We’re continuing our celebration of Black Panther’s release by highlighting another film, this time with its main star. Netflix exclusive Message From The King is a violent revenge tale that features T’Challa himself, Chadwick Boseman — here also playing an African protagonist. There’s not a lot of buzz behind this film, but a great cast featuring Luke Evans, Alfred Molina, Teresa Palmer and Tom Felton certainly has us intrigued.

You can send your thoughts to [email protected] anytime before midnight on Thursday.

Our Guests

Jaime Burchardt:

I really don’t know why I’ve been putting off watching this until this week, so thank you TC for that. This is also my first Ryan Coogler film, and after watching this, yeah I’m even more eager to watch Black Panther and I have to watch Fruitvale Station soon, but if Creed is a true indication of Coogler’s talent…holy fuck I won’t be ready for those other two films. I barely survived Creed! He’s already one of my favorite new filmmakers now, and his entrance into a franchise I hold dear to my heart (Rocky Balboa forever, folks) is as dynamic as anything I’ve seen recently. What I loved most about the emotional punch that’s stored in this epic film is that it builds, and builds, and builds. That final moment when we finally learn what Adonis is all about hit me right in the sternum, and the sentiments poured out. It’s about proving something, to whoever is close to you, but most importantly yourself. Michael B Jordan and Sylvester Stallone are absolutely brilliant here, with outstanding supporting acts (had no idea Tessa Thompson was in this and hell yes), dazzling cinematography, some of the best editing I’ve seen in a long time, and a job from Coogler that is nothing but pure love and inspiration incarnate. (Side note-I listened to the soundtrack as I prepped this quick blurb up and if you haven’t listened to it, fix that because it’s awesome). (@jaimeburchardt)

Austin Wilden:

The main theme that I found myself holding onto on this recent rewatch of Creed is sharing. In the world as presented by Ryan Coogler in this movie, to share is to love. Passion, pain, legacy and food are all shared between the characters. When Donnie is telling Rocky, “I fight. You fight.”, it’s a declaration of willingness to share those fights. Whether it’s Donnie’s bout with Ricky Conlan, Rocky going through chemo or Bianca working to make a name for herself in music before she loses her hearing, keeping these things from each other causes problems and being willing to share them mends. If shared with the right people, it’s easier to take the pain and struggles on, as Rocky says, “One step at a time. One punch at a time. One round at a time.” (@WC_Wit)

Brendan Agnew:

The greatest triumphs of Creed are, appropriately, in the finer details. Co-writer and director Ryan Coogler could have easily coasted on the legacy of the franchise’s statuesque iconography and well-worn routines. And to be sure, the movie seems — from a distance — to use the safe and standard structure of almost every Rocky film. However, like the titular contender, this movie is restless to prove itself in the harsh light of the ring rather than staying safely in the shadows.

And make no mistake, in the ring Creed is a hell of a fighter, but that’s not where the film is most interested in showing its mettle. It does so in the small, the personal. It’s in the way Michael B. Jordan creates such a charismatic yet volatile lead to stand in deliberate but complimentary contrast to the easygoing Balboa. It’s in the way almost everyone in Philly calls Rocky champ, but can’t drown out the echoing quiet where there should be the voices of Mick, Paulie, and Adrian. It’s in the way that Bianca will challenge Donnie just as surely as anyone in the ring, because she’s there for his passion but not his bullshit. It’s in the way characters will utter four or five words that unlock something brilliant and yet obvious that completely refocus the narrative.

And then a punch lands, and you realize that Ludwig Gransson’s score is so powerful and perfect that you didn’t even think to miss “Gonna Fly Now” until it drops at the perfect point in the 12th round and all those tiny details, those little victories, come together to bring you cheering to your feet. Because in a great Rocky movie, like life, it’s not the big title fight that matters the most. It’s the smaller successes that get you into the ring and keep you standing as you step out.

Ryan Coogler knows how winning is done, and Creed more than proves it. (@BLCAgnew)

Trey Lawson:

Creed has no business being as good as it is. A spinoff of a 1970s boxing movie franchise that’s already five sequels deep, it recognizes that why the original Rocky worked was not because of the sports but because of the characters. Michael B Jordan is a revelation as Adonis Johnson, and he imbues every scene with the conflicting emotions that drive his character. He is a person whose pain and feelings of abandonment have fueled his rage for years, but also an outsider who deeply wants to belong. Stallone’s Rocky becoming a supporting character makes perfect sense following the character’s swan song in Rocky Balboa, and his arc becomes even more powerful if you watch that film back to back with this one. In fact, this is probably Stallone’s best performance in at least the last 10 years-maybe longer. He and (the also delightful) Tessa Thompson provide emotional anchors for Adonis, forcing him to keep it 100, as it were, as he struggles to come to terms with his identity as a Creed. It also doesn’t hurt that when the boxing sequences do start, they have some of the most exciting in-ring camerawork and editing I’ve ever seen. I love everything about this film. Creed makes me cry every time I watch it, and I am very concerned about the sequel reportedly swinging the franchise back toward larger-than-life cartoon characters and macho jingoism. Can I see Black Panther now? (@T_Lawson)

The Team

Justin Harlan:

It’s a tough statement to make as a Philadelphian, but I’ve always been lukewarm on the Rocky films. I mean, I LIKE them, but have never been able to claim that I LOVE them. The first is a really solid film and the sequels vary from good to only okay. In short, they are good films, but have never blown me away. Perhaps the fact my Philadelphia pride is relatively young due to not being a native Philadelphian; but, each year I’m here, I love this city and this area more and more.

With that, I spent this whole week reveling in all things Philly, culminating in spending my day at the insane Eagles Super Bowl Parade and festivities associated with it yesterday. Thus, I’m Philly’d up at a level beyond any I’ve been before.

In keeping with that, Creed embodies the Philly spirit and the Rocky spirit in such great ways. It’s the best film in the series since the first and the cast is phenomenal. In short, this jawn is tight and you should watch it if you haven’t yet. (@ThePaintedMan)

Brendan Foley:

Were it not for the existence of Mad Max: Fury Road, Creed would have been far and away my favorite film of 2015, and it has only grown in my estimation since that first viewing. Going into the film, I had no idea how I would react to someone else taking Stallone’s very personal ball and running with it. I love and revere the Rocky films (well, fine, five of them. Rocky V never happened. It NEVER HAPPENED), and part of what makes them fascinating is the way each film acts as a reflection of where Stallone was at personally and creatively at that time. So, yeah, Rocky IV is bloated, coked-out insanity, 80’s excess given physical manifestation. But that’s where he was in his life at that point. Along with loving Rocky films, I just love Rocky himself. Rocky Balboa is one of the great creations in cinema, especially in that never-bettered first film. So as exciting as it was to get another story in this world after Rocky Balboa seemed to close the door as well as could have been hoped, it was nerve-wracking as well. What if this new guy fucked it up? What if they got Rock wrong, or retroactively screwed up Apollo? What if *gulp* they made us watch Rocky Balboa die? The heart can only take so much.

All that worrying was for naught. Coogler and his collaborators do an incredible job of both capturing the grit and flavor of the original Rocky, while also making a film that in its pacing, style, and world feels thoroughly modern. This isn’t JJ-style nostalgia fetish, recreating the past to earn automatic affection, but taking what worked in the past and building from there. Coogler knows where to experiment, where to show some flash (the one-shot fight is an all-timer, and the impressionistic flourishes during the final contest work much better here than when Stallone tried for something similar in Balboa’s climax) and when to play the notes we all already know. He knows how to hold out back on the familiar Rocky tropes juuuuuuuuust long enough to make their recurrence more satisfying than you woulda thought humanly possible (the return of Rocky’s theme during the climax makes me want to stand and cheer every damn time).

Scene for scene, shot for shot, Creed is the work of a new master, swaggering onto center stage and letting everyone know he is here to stay. (@TheTrueBrendanF)

Austin Vashaw:

Rocky is my absolute favorite franchise and Creed is a wonderful film that proudly stands in that tradition, adding depth to the epic, now multi-generational saga.

The best thing about Creed is that it’s simultaneously a great new story while also being 100% a Rocky film. This is the next chapter of the Rocky saga, but also shifts focus to introduce us to the son of Apollo Creed, Rocky’s former rival turned best friend. The burying of the hatchet was one of the franchise’s most endearing developments, and the sense of surrogate family that resulted continues in this cleverly scripted follow-up.

Adonis has the same kind of hunger that drove Rocky — in his case, the result of fear of living in his father’s shadow combined with the shame of being an illegitimate son. By having a compelling protagonist, story, and framework that honor the franchise, Creed easily dodges the pitfalls of the “son of” trope of sequelization. And lest we forget, this is Rocky’s story, too. With Adrian and now Paulie passed on, and his son having moved far away, he’s feeling more old, lonely, and tired with each passing day. Even though he’s always been a fighter, he’s reached a place where there’s not much left to fight for.

Underneath the boxing framework is the real impact of the story, giving Rocky the sense of purpose that he’s lost, and Adonis the father figure he never had. It’s this key relationship that drives the film and makes it a real-deal Rocky movie and not just a spin-off — and also its own unique entity and jumping-off point for an incredible new character. (@VforVashaw)

(Excerpted/reassembled from Austin’s Creed Blu-ray review)

Further reading:

https://cinapse.co/the-previous-chapter-of-the-creed-saga-rocky-iv-two-cents-3637742a05f9

Next week’s pick:

https://cinapse.co/the-previous-chapter-of-the-creed-saga-rocky-iv-two-cents-3637742a05f9