Director spotlight: RYAN COOGLER

Had already seen: Black Panther (2018)
Watched for this: Fruitvale Station (2013), Creed (2015), Locks (short, 2009)
Have not seen: Shorts Fig (2010) and The Sculptor (2011)

Coogler has become one of my favorite directors.

Of course I had already seen Black Panther and written about it in terms of its success as a comic book adaptation, celebration of African culture, and political commentary. I also had some interest in watching Fruitvale Station and would have probably gotten there eventually. But without this, there was no way I was ever going to see Creed.

I have never seen any of the other films in the Rocky franchise, nor have I wanted to. I don't like boxing. A lot of people praise Rocky itself, but indicate that the films go downhill after that. I felt no need.

I really liked Creed.

I may not have seen any of the previous films, but they play enough of a role in pop culture that everyone knows things about them. I appreciated the way the callbacks to the film managed to be original.

It is pretty well known that Rocky's eye got all swollen in the first film, and they had to cut it with a razor. Cringe! Creed started having eye problems in his big fight... uh oh, where is this going? Not there, but they still did have a vision problem and had a creative way of solving it. Creed's training montage reminds you of Rocky's, but it has its own twists.

It is impressive that he has done so well - twice - building on an existing property, as well as adapting something from life. It is more impressive how different each film feels, as well as the different scales. Fruitvale Station is a fairly intimate film and set in Oakland, Coogler's home turf; you would not necessarily guess that he could do so well at creating Wakanda.

He also maintained a good balance of interest and dread with Fruitvale Station, despite knowing the conclusion. When that fatal shot is fired, it is still a shock.

Creed feels sporty; the introductions for the individual boxers helps with that. There is also a deeper theme of motivation and compulsion. All three main characters have things that they need to do and good reasons not to do them, but they still have to. It doesn't overshadow the main arc, but it is emotionally compelling.

In retrospect, seeing the previous films makes Black Panther more impressive, because it is such an increase in scale, but Coogler demonstrated a sure hand. He gets storytelling. That he also has writing credits on each film may give an indication of how he makes things come out right, but it is no guarantee. Having watched his earliest short now, yes, film school has made him better at running things smoothly and making them look good, but his sense of story and empathy for the characters has been there.

There are lots of different ways to make movies and I can appreciate a lot of them. Coming from this, though, I will tend to trust Coogler to take good material and then do good things with it.

I look forward to seeing what he does next.