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The Opening “Ding!”

Creed III is not what you think. In what we now have to call the Rocky Cinematic Universe, it’s easy to just relegate any of the nine movies to just a sports movie but it brings way more to the table. As Michael B. Jordan’s first foray into directing, there’s a lot on the line for his reputation. Creed III does not rest on the laurels of being a franchise with a strong legacy, quite the opposite – it strikes out on its own. It’s bold, brave, blerdy, and Black AF.

Tale of the Tape

At the end of Creed II, the birth of his daughter forces Adonis to make peace with the weight of his father’s legacy after taking out Ivan Drago’s son Viktor and retaining the heavyweight championship. For clarity, he beat the brakes off the son of the boxer who killed his father in the ring in the 80s. Adonis is still the champ and holds his own as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the game. Creed III picks up three years after the events of the second movie and opens with Adonis’ last fight before retirement against “Pretty” Ricky Conlan, the big fight from the first Creed movie.

The Creed III Review

Creed III is a thoroughly surprising movie. There is an attention to detail and symbolism that quite frankly has no business being as well done as it was. This is the theme for the whole movie, really. Creed III‘s success hinges almost entirely on performances and short of a few lines of writing, it all clicks together quite well. At the intersection of acting, set design, costume design, direction, an immaculate soundtrack, and original music, Creed III hits on all cylinders.

MBJ’s Directorial Debut & Black Movie Freedom

Let’s keep it a hundred, Michael B Jordan’s acting range is limited. It just is. Homie has been a different variation of Wallace from The Wire for the larger part of his career. While this might seem like a slight, it really is a testament to the fact that MBJ has spent his career being able to focus on just being a Black person in film and television. This is now his specialty and his brand – to bring the fullness of his Black experience to every role. Knowing that his acting range is what it is, it should make directing himself difficult, but MBJ steps into his third stab at Adonis Creed with the maturity of a veteran actor. It shouldn’t be surprising, but it’s still impressive.

At the very least, this movie feels like part of a moment of freedom in Black creation. Enough people of color have achieved access and mainstream success that all audiences can relate to a movie scripted, produced, directed, and acted by people of color. This is in the vein of Nia DaCosta’s Candyman and her upcoming The Marvels, Jordan Peele’s catalog, or even Akila Cooper’s M3gan, among many others). Whether this moment is here to stay is unknown, but it’s here. Now.

Performances

Creed III is held together by performance, the entire movie truly hinges on the physicality, presence, and emoting of the cast. Y’all. They did that. Nobody fell short and I’m going to do my best to get everyone their flowers.

Michael B. Jordan reprises Adonis Creed for the third time and manages to give the character as much depth as he had in the first movie. Of course, the homie brought the physique (and his personal trainer) to the set like he does every time. He ups the ante by giving us the Adonis Creed that is exploring fatherhood, responsibility, and reconciling masculinity. MBJ delivers something subtle but important and rarely seen in cinema, a trilogy following the arc of a Black man from his boyhood through adulthood. We’ve watched Adonis fight and show his strength in that way, but here Jordan has to convey care and compromise and show strength in all the ways that defy stereotypical masculinity.

Tessa Thompson reprises as the successful musician turned producer and mother Bianca. Even though she plays a more minor role in the plot, she shines as a catalyst in the further development of Adonis’ character. If you think less screen time equates to less impact, you’d be dead wrong. Thompson has the chops to make every moment onscreen count, and she does. She brings a quiet intensity and grabs every scene she’s in.

Phylicia Rashad is acting her ass off in Creed III. She returns as Adonis’ adoptive mother Mary-Anne and really lets you know she’s been doing this for decades. Rashad has played many a mother, and she lends her veteran acting experience to the nuance of this third reprisal of Mary-Anne Johnson. The evolution from an angry, stern mother to a supportive, wisened grandmother will not be lost on audiences. **[SPOILER]** I have never been more stirred by a death scene, and it rests entirely on the studied and lived experience of Phylicia Rashad. It’s so easy to play up a death, and she chose to meet it with a dignity that I have never seen onscreen.

This will be the second time in a month that Jonathan Majors is receiving flowers from me for a performance. Majors enters the Creed franchise as protagonist “Diamond” Damian Anderson and brings it. Dame is a villain through and through, and it hits different. Majors does so much through his physicality in any role, so his being jacked for this character is mostly for show.

The mentality and methodology of Dame is his most terrifying trait, there has never been a more thoroughly dominating force in the Rocky cinematic universe. Ivan Drago looked to break the body, and Damian Anderson looks to break the spirit of his opponents. When Adonis and Dame meet up on the beach, the way Majors flips the switch on the whole character at the drop of a dime gave me goosebumps. Might as well name him Bane Anderson. He broke people down the same way using the language of scientific violence. He definitely hit Adonis with the ‘victory has defeated you!’ We’re looking at a strong contender for ‘villain of the year’ and more importantly the kind of acting that makes everyone else in the cast step it up to meet. Especially the way his signature intensity forces both Adonis and Michael B. Jordan to evolve.

Creed III is Anime Built

Let it be known this movie is built on the bones of anime greatness. From the costumes to the rhythm of action in the fights to the spirit and development of the characters, anime was in the building from the beginning! As the director, Michael B. Jordan cracked the code on commercial appeal. Anime is so mainstream now that anyone can follow the narrative beats and progressions.

First off, Adonis opens the movie mid-fight in a pair of red leather boxing trunks that were directly inspired by Kaneda’s iconic jacket from the seminal 80s anime and manga Akira. We’re talking about the first few minutes of the movie here, so straight out the gate the intention is present and doesn’t let up. Costume designer Lizz Wolf leaned all the way into MBJ’s love of anime.

Then there’s the development of Dame’s character. His whole fighting style is a one-for-one homage to the boxing anime Hajime No Ippo. Majors mentioned that MBJ had him watch some anime to get ready for the film, what we didn’t know is how vital the references were going to be. Dame’s whole fighting style is based on Ryo Mashiba’s “Hitman Style” from Hajime No Ippo, which was inspired by real-life boxing icon Tommy “Hitman” Hearns. Even Ryo’s story of having run-ins with the law and fighting his way out of poverty is called back in Dame’s story. It’s too clean to be a coincidence.

Of course, that last fight?! It might as well have been Naruto and Sasuke in the waterfall rocking Everlast gloves. There are several moments that reference some seriously iconic anime moments. At one point, the whole facade of the arena melts away, even the music is taken away. Dame and Adonis go blow for blow and hit the double punch at the same time, which many people might recognize from Dragon Ball Z’s Goku versus Vegeta battle. But the deeper cut, for the initiated (and we are initiated, aren’t we reader?) is that it comes from Ashita No Joe, the 1960s boxing manga/anime that would go on to inspire Megalobox.

In Closing

If you like anime, this movie has something for you. If you’re into boxing, there’s something for you. If you loved the Rocky movies, there’s something for you. Creed III is way better than it has any business being. The performances carry this movie, and the caliber of those performances makes it stand out from every other entry in the Rocky Cinematic Universe. Bolstered by Ryan and Keenan Coogler’s screenwriting alongside Ludwig Goransson and Dreamville’s music, Michael B. Jordan’s directorial debut goes the distance. Creed III knows what it is and offers a masterful telling of the kind of story that can only be told in a world where a ‘nobody’ can become a champion. You can check out Creed III in theatres worldwide.

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The post Bold, Blerdy, and Black AF: ‘Creed III’ Review appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.

Lupa’s story comes to its end with Lupina Book Two: Wane from Legendary Comics. The tale picks up after Book One and follows Lupa as she discovers her destiny and her tribe. With joining others comes the uncertainty and the struggle of making a place to belong all over again. We interviewed Lupina Book Two: Wane writer James F. Wright over email to ask about Lupa’s journey, the importance of balance, and collaborating with illustrator Li Buszka and the rest of the team. (Lupina Book Two‘s creatives also include artist Martin F. Clinch, colorist Bex Glendining, and letterer Frank Cvetkovic.) Plus, we have a preview of the first five pages.

Nerdist: Lupina Book Two: Wane advances Lupa’s arc quite a bit, figuratively and also literally with time jumps. How did you and Li plot her journey?

James F. Wright: We had always intended to age Lupa up with each successive chapter, to show how she grows and learns along the way, almost as vignettes or highlights. Lupa begins as a four-year-old and ends in her twenties, and in lieu of showing each year of her life with Coras on the road, we decided very early on to depict only those monumental steps for her.

One other aspect of that journey is told via colors, devised and implemented by Bex Glendining. It was Li’s idea to introduce a new color with each successive chapter, like a slow-motion Wizard of Oz, as a metaphor for Lupa’s treacherous journey. Phase One begins with just red on a black-and-white inks, then green in Phase Two, blue in Phase Three, and then in Book Two we add orange, purple, and finally yellow, respectively. The closer she gets to her destination, to her destiny, the brighter her world becomes.

With both the writing and the art, we see more of Lupa’s feral side—especially compared to her sisters. What was it like pushing that aspect?

Wright: In Book One: Wax, Lupa and Coras are on their own so much, and for so long, that Lupa doesn’t really meet anyone her own age, or under the same circumstances as herself. So for Book Two, when we introduced the “other sisters” at the Inner Light Monastery, we wanted the difference to be as stark as possible. These other girls are, in theory, just like Lupa—survivors of the assassination attempt on them as youths, guided by a wolf companion to this temple—but they have not had the same path as Lupa and that distinction sets her apart, at least at first. So pushing that aspect was crucial because she had to begin as an outsider and then come to some understanding about herself in relation to these other girls.

I also want to give a shout out to our letterers Ariana Maher (Book One) and Frank Cvetkovic (Book Two), both of whom went above and beyond in crafting the way Lupa speaks. The way she speaks at the outset of her journey, having been raised in a society with language and culture, versus how she speaks after years on the road with Coras is markedly different. That feral lettering is apparent when she begins her tutelage at the Inner Light, but when she leaves the lettering of her speech looks more like it did when we met her years prior back in her hometown of Kote. She’s even writing a letter to the monks and her sisters before she departs, something the wild girl who first arrived at the monastery could never have done.

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I feel like so much of the story is about balance. Creation doesn’t have as much weight without Destruction, for example. How did you and Li carry that theme through the work?

Wright: Lupa is a survivor of the attack on her village that ends the first chapter of this series, and while she doesn’t understand it at the time, she feels a deep sense of guilt about that. Going so far as to blame herself as the cause of destruction that surrounds her; the “monster” her sister teases her of being. When Coras shows up, ostensibly to guide Lupa to her ultimate goal, she represents one element of calm within Lupa’s tumultuous life. As much as possible, Coras’ aim is to show Lupa another way, to show her that her desire for destruction, for revenge, will not consume her.

Initially, Paroso, the wolf who attacks Lupa at temple back in Book One, was intended to be a one-off character, but the more Li and I talked about it the more we realized he could serve as an avatar of Lupa’s destructive nature, the yin to Coras’ yang. He shows up again and again, and eventually Lupa stops fighting against him and accepts his presence, which is the point at which her understanding of who she is becomes a reality. Had Coras not shown up to protect Lupa when she did, way back when Lupa was a mere child, there is no telling who–or what–Lupa would have become.

Finally, what was your collaboration with Li like?

Wright: Honestly? A dream. Li’s artistic talent is second to none, and they’re just a great person in general, so that made our collaboration so much easier. I tried to play to their strengths at first, writing characters and scenarios at which I knew they’d excel, only to learn that there were few things at which they didn’t excel.

Lupa’s design was all Li—the big eyes of her youth to the harder eyes of her adolescence, the errant strand of hair with a mind of its own—and as soon as I saw their first thumbnail sketch of our protagonist I was so excited to write whatever adventures she would go on. And in addition to their artistic skills, Li has been professional, patient, and unafraid to experiment to make the story better. At the risk of self-deprecation, I often say that I think the story of Lupina is good, but I think the art is outstanding. That’s due to Li’s hard work! (And the hard work of our other collaborators: Bex Glendining’s fantastic use of color, Ariana Maher and Frank Cvetkovic’s evocative lettering, Marty Clinch’s wonderful ink assists, Josh Eckert’s lovely title designs, and our incredible and incredibly accommodating editor, Nikita Kannekanti.)

Lupina Book Two: Wane is available now wherever you buy books.

Editor’s Note: Nerdist is a subsidiary of Legendary Digital Networks.

The post LUPINA BOOK TWO: WANE’s Writer on Lupa’s Journey and the Importance of Balance appeared first on Nerdist.

Ted Lasso is back. Season three of the series about the lovable soccer coach/fish out of water follows AFC Richmond once more, this time in the Premier League. The underdog team has a number of rivals they must defeat to come out on top, but Rebecca is focused on one team in particular: West Ham. Her ex-husband Rupert Mannion owns the club—the same club Nate Shelley betrayed Richmond to join. The season three premiere took us to West Ham’s offices, showing Rupert’s office with an extremely Emperor Palpatine vibe. The nod to Star Wars‘ ultimate villain was intentional.

Speaking with Variety, Ted Lasso’s production designer Paul Cripps said Rupert’s office has Return of the Jedi influences. The circular window, the color scheme—nothing about it is warm and inviting. Cripps said:

We always talked of Rupert being like — not saying anything about West Ham the team — but wherever Rupert is, it’s his empire, and he’s the Dark Lord who’s interfering all the time. I just thought, well, actually, why can’t we make him an office that feels like the scene when Luke meets the Emperor?

We have no doubt that Rupert has plenty of dark side behavior up his sleeve.

New episodes of Ted Lasso air on Wednesdays on Apple TV+.

The post TED LASSO’s Season 3 Premiere Has an Excellent Emperor Palpatine Reference appeared first on Nerdist.

Memphis Grizzlies’ young superstar basketball player Ja Morant has been running into a lot of trouble lately and was recently suspended by the NBA team. It is reported that he has checked himself into a counseling program with no timetable for his return to the basketball court.

ESPN Senior NBA Insider Adrian Wojnarowski reported the news on his Twitter account.