SYLVIE'S LOVE: I Needed This.

How pure, how lovely, how cool and satisfying this movie was to me, is difficult to describe, much like love itself. It is exactly my kind of romance. Romance as a genre is to me one of the hardest to pull off on screen, because it conjures our most insincere sensibilities. There is no one way to do it, but my favorite is when love is treated as if it is complicated enough without our methodical tinkering for the sake of drama. To use a wrestling analogy I love romance without heels to hate, and faces to love, without cheating as a plot device, or gender battles born out of Twitter discourse and entertainment, and in particular of a certain black filmmakers favorite - black women's trauma. Sylvie's Love satiated my appetite for this exact kind of romance.

Sylvie (Tessa Thompson) is a young dreaming ambitious black woman who loves her father, listens to her mother and not only dreams, but follows through on a life where she is the captain of her destiny. So while living firmly within the codes, morals and conventions of her time, she still clearly sets herself as apart from it which is a wonderful argument against the idea that you cannot tell stories that take place in a certain time without planting the characters in all the worst and most reductive attitudes and rituals of that time. I digress, Sylvie meets a young similarly ambitious Robert (Nmandi Asumongha ) who spots her from outside the window with a help wanted sign, and instantly sees her. There is no meet-cute, no unnecessary or forced banter as we might see in something like the year's earlier black romantic offering “The Photograph”, just as organic a setting and a meeting of two people as a film can offer. Subsequently the first meeting in which they begin to fall for each other is created by a locked door. Which I love because don’t we all meet or have locked doors that can either trap us in our ways, or lead us to our love if opened? It’s also a better and more interesting stand in for the tired cliché of an elevator that gets stuck. This feels like something that could actually happen and not like another version of a plot device used to force two people who may not have their own volition allowed themselves to be in one room for this amount of time getting to know each other. This budding love of course is not without complications as no love story is, and we have been told earlier that Sylvie is actually engaged, but we're all pretty aware pretty soon that Sophie's real love is Robert. This engagement is not easily dismissed, not for Sylvie or the audience. It is a real complication with real consequences and real stakes, as it deals with a dilemma that’s real for many of us in this capitalist society, marry for love or for reality, balance, help, status. In this world neither is funny or easily dismissed. The film understands this pish and pull, and doesn’t pit these two against each other as much as show us the evolution of Sylvie’s decision. Sylvie’s “Love” takes its time both with Sylvie’s and Robert's relationship and with the eventual resolution of the agreed-upon marriage. The toughest part of this movie and what makes it so great for me, is that there is no real villain here. Husband Lacey is not the worst kind of man, but he is not the best either. He's not something out of a Tyler Perry movie, a villainous cheater, or an abuser, he's not sitting on his woman, he's just your average guy with probably the average moral standing of a man from his era. No, the True Villain if there is a villain or such a thing in this film, it is life, and just as life gets in the way in this film in the famous words of Dr. Ian Malcolm from Jurassic Park - life finds a way - to continually bring these two back into each other's arms.

There is lots of beauty in Sylvies love, cinematographer Declan Quinn Paints and reinforces the mood with deep saturated blue hues and lots of browns and plenty of great lighting. Costume designer Phoenix Mellow dresses up the characters lots of streamlined simple but lush colors, and all of it feels like a true ode to the era rather than the commercialist idea that came from the era, and of course we have our two leads themselves Nnamdi Asomugha and Tessa Thompson are both incredibly gorgeous people, but the most beautiful portion of this film is its naturalistic, patient, touching portrait of the ups and the downs of being in love and it's ultimate sentiment which is: If you love something enough you have to be willing to let it go, and if it comes back to you.. well then you know the rest. Sylvia is the first one to make this choice and the basis of this decision is because she wants to see him flourish and she knows the kind of man that he is. Robert will make a similar sacrifice next and again the basis of it is that he wants to see Sylvie flourish, not because he is a low-down dog, or a coward. I know that there are all kinds of truths existing about men and the reality of the things that we do and the way that we have created the world in our horribly misshapen image of masculinity, but even still it's nice to see a movie that centers in it a decent, loving, caring black man whose flawed but none the less a good man. As it pertains to love its nice to see a refreshing portrayal of the many times timing and/or our own insecurities get in our way and also how our and in the movie their insecurities factor into the flaws of their decision-making. The beauty lies in the fact that through this conflict of self and time the ultimate driver of his/her decisions, and the choice is still love and that's sweet and that's flawed and that's love. Love is hard enough to portray on screen, black love is even more difficult to even get to the screen. In a year that's seen some touchstones for black filmmakers, and seen the rise of some very interesting filmmakers this was a nice cap off. To finish out this tumultuous year with a story this rich, this gorgeous, this sweet. To see a film that has at its center a portrait of black love with a two people falling for each other not by or through the sacrifices they ask of the other, but by the sacrifices they ask of themselves and come together through it all. Nothing this year that came out made me cry and smile ear to ear as much. In moments it was arduous, and it hurt, and it felt oh so good, and in the end I was all the much happier that I went on the journey and that too is love, and especially in 2020, I needed this .

Creed II : Exhilarating, but dangerous.

Boxing was the sport I was introduced to the earliest in my life. it's probably the earliest memory I have of any sport. My father put gloves on me and my brother at a very early age, and to this day one of my favorite pastimes is sitting with him and my little brother, watching the fights.  Boxing is one of the last remaining bastions of some of the worst aspects of masculinity, but also it is representative of some of the best. I disagree with those who would merely reduce and dismiss it as a gross, bloodletting, savage event for the entertainment of the masses. but I also understand why they would feel that way. There is though, a science to boxing, there is an art. The training, the honing, sculpting of the body to turn it into an instrument capable of taking damage and inflicting it. An instrument designed to act when it needs to act,  to react when he/she needs it to react. Watching these two men sculpt themselves in order to eventually sculpt each other, interacting with each other in a dance with each other, becoming something wholly new in and of itself is truly art to me. As Bruce Lee once remarked it is a form of expression through the body, and its earliest stages, at its best the indelible Rocky franchises capture the best principles of the sport, of sport itself. Trail and error, baptism through fire, finding, testing, reaching, and then surpassing your limits. What it means to be these modern day gladiators, that put their bodies on the line for the sake of our entertainment. The original Rocky interrogated that place against the backdrop of a forlorn city and the people from within the city who have been forgotten, trying to make a name for themselves. From that point on though the iconic boxer and the franchise began the slow non linear path to losing its way. Sometimes this led to incredulously entertaining results (Rocky 4), sometimes to pure disaster (Rocky 5) and everywhere in-between.

Once it was announced that Ryan Coogler, Michael B. Jordan, and Sylvester Stallone would come together to tel the story of Apollo Creed's son Adonis, I was both intrigued and leery. The first Creed was both what I expected ( an uninteresting re-hash of tired boxing tropes) and some things I didn’t (some interesting exploration of some of those same boxing tropes). The second installment in the franchise without Coogler’s deft touch (Director Steven Caple Jr, takes the helm) turns into a two hour version of a music video. Mind you it’s one of the good ones, but much like a video it delivers its punches in shorthand. Much like Floyd Mayweather, there is very little power behind these cinematic punches, but they come fast and sharp. Mostly at this point the Creed franchise is a solid one, but a missed opportunity. A missed opportunity to discuss the current state of boxing, to subvert the toxic masculinity within the sport, to create an interesting character study of a boxer in the new era trying to navigate his way through the trauma of loss. Interestingly enough, one of those aforementioned punches engages in some of this, but it’s not our titular hero and his world weary trainer (himself formerly our titular hero) but rather his sworn enemy and his progeny Ivan and Viktor Drago.

The under written, but best storyline in this movie is not that of Adonis Creed which sets up (a lesson that Creed will never learn and yet overcomes anyway) but Ivan and Viktor Drago. Their father son dynamic, Drago’s forlorn hopes and dreams gnarled and entangled in a great ball of pent up and toxic anger and frustration that lives within his son who lives and breathes to avenge his fathers defeat, provided both of the most memorable moments to b found in this film. One takes place at a dinner hosted in honor of the rousing beat down Viktor hands Adonis in their initial match. When a surprise guest shows up it becomes all to clear what the source of the Dragos trauma and frustration is. It is also where (for the first time I’ve ever seen on screen) Dolph Lundgren flexes some serious acting muscles. The second takes place in the exhilarating finale. Both are welcome respites from the toxic form of masculinity that goes unchecked in this second offering. These are genuine challenges, displays of affection, and cathartic release of the hurt and pain that brought them this far, that if explored more effectively, rigorously, and consistently throughout this film could’ve made it an Oscar contender.

“Creed II’s lack of desire to interrogate the worst of the sport, cuts short its ability to effectively interrogate and challenge our hero adonis. I remember watching “Star Trek II Into Darkness”, and amongst other things being entirely disappointed that I was played. An intriguing plot line was introduced that suggested the movie was about Kirk learning to be a captain by learning to balance his tendency to fly by the seat of his pants, allowing his emotions and unchecked ego to get the best of him. Kirk spends the rest of the movie doing everything but and being rewarded..(Insert face palm here). I see the same problem in Adonis’s arc in this film. Adonis begins the film as much to toxic a man to ever be a good boxer, husband, friend, and if we we’re being honest in this movie - father. He is selfish, impulsive, and guilty of that all too common tendency of men to suppress their pain. When Adonis utter the words “Im Dangerous!” I though to myself “Yeah to yourself and everyone around you”. All of this plays out to disastrous physical results in his first fight with Viktor. Adonis is pulverized by his own refusal to confront his pain in ay meaningful way and if not for all the razzle and dazzle of this film, it would’ve crushed the movie too.

Creed 2 hits many of the right beats to make it an intoxicatingly cool, if not emotionally manipulative (rarely authentic) but spirited sequel. Sylvester Stallone is still the best actor in these movies, and I’d easily hand him another Oscar nod for his portrayal of Rocky in this film. Stallone takes some really interesting beats, and continues to surprise me with some of the inspired choices he makes on screen. The movie is extremely well paced, which ensures you won’t feel a moment of its over two hour runtime. The fight choreography is some of the best and most realistic Ive seen ever, but the fights themselves are some of the most over-the-top and ridiculous in the entirety of both franchises since Rocky III. Creed II fetishizes pain to the detriment of its other characters, (especially if they are WOMEN ) the story, and the authenticity of its fights. Adonis does not learn anything by confronting both his physical, and more importantly psychological pain, he merely heaps more on and finds his way out after a corny after school special pep talk. The punishment he takes in this film is beyond brutal, and would have real life ramifications that would end at the very least his career, and they are not interrogated in this film nearly enough, instead they are glorified. This coming from a person who has watched boxing for almost the entirety of my life. The movie is still a good time, and manages to leave you buzzing once the final bell rings, but it also left me with a queasy feeling about the poor messaging it might leave for future boxers, and ultimately unsatisfied with the way it sidelined some of its more interesting characters, and plot points (Russell Hornsby’s shady promoter, and subsequently what he does to or for the sport is also thoroughly under explored) like Tessa Thompson’s Bianca and the Drago’s in favor of a retread of a kind of heroism that needs to die.

IN THEATERS NOVEMBER 21. Life has become a balancing act for Adonis Creed. Between personal obligations and training for his next big fight, he is up against the challenge of his life. Facing an opponent with ties to his family's past only intensifies his impending battle in the ring.