There have been several prestige films that were supposed to take off this award season and become contenders for Oscar and they haven’t delivered. Our Brand Is Crisis kinda bombed this weekend. Nobody cared about the Steve Jobs movie even though the critics (mostly) loved it. Nobody noticed Joseph Gordon-Levitt in The Walk. Or The Truth, with Cate Blanchett and Robert Redford. So far it’s been The Martian, only The Martian. Spotlight should do well though. And Brooklyn too.
But there’s also room for Creed.
Creed is part of the Rocky franchise, only this time, Rocky’s a supporting character, which is one of the reasons Sly Stallone came back. He thought the Rocky narrative was over, complete, in 2007 with Rocky Balboa. Rocky’s return then isn’t about Rocky, it’s about how Rocky can mentor the next…
His name is Adonis, the son of Apollo, who died after fighting Ivan Drago in Rocky IV, in my opinion the greatest of all the Rockys. Because, you know, Rocky beat Communism. Adonis is played by Michael B Jordan. You know him from The Wire. You know him from Friday Night Lights. You know him from Parenthood. You know him from Fruitvale. Fruitvale was when he started building the momentum. The momentum was put on pause this summer after the disaster that was Fantastic Four.
But here’s Michael B Jordan with a profile in the New York Times this week and, maybe, maybe now, it really is his time. Creed comes out just in time for US Thanksgiving, when people are jacked on turkey and football. It’s perfect counterprogramming to The Hunger Games. And Michael B Jordan seems to be getting a lot better at the press thing. As you know, there have been some stumbles. There has also been a decent apology – click here for a refresher. This interview with the NYT is solid. And it also establishes his partnership with Ryan Coogler as a potential new Scorsese-De Niro/DiCaprio situation. They’ve now worked on two films together and are about to begin work on a third about the Atlanta school cheating scandal.
Creed has been coming in under the radar, which I think will work in its favour. I think it will exceed expectations. And I also think…
Michael B Jordan + Jennifer Lawrence?
Click here to read MBJ’s NYT profile.
Also attached - Michael at Absolut Electrik House a couple of weeks ago in LA.
