Tom Jolliffe looks at Ryan Coogler’s career as a writer/director and the possibilities (and importance) of what comes next…
When you breakout in a big way as an independent film-maker, in a small film that manages to hook in a fairly large audience, the expectation for what comes next, begins. Everyone is always billed as the ‘next…(insert legendary director’s name for comparison)’ I suppose for Coogler he’s been mentioned in the same breath as Spike Lee, but that’s almost a bit blasé because Coogler happens to be black. That’s not to gloss over the point though. He is, and with that, when a director (See also Steve McQueen for example) who isn’t white, breaks through into a predominantly white male position (and this point could apply to female directors too) and garners a lot of hype and praise, there’s a weight of responsibility that comes with that. If Coogler retains his standing, keeps building, he forges a path and potentially creates openings (he’s already left an opening for the directors chair in Creed II for Steven Caple Jr.).
If a breakout director hits a bump in the road, occasionally one is big enough to derail their career before it’s even started. Sometimes it can be an inability to recapture the fresh vibrancy that they managed the first time out. Occasionally it could be a wrong first move into the bigger studio pictures. This also happens to foreign directors who transition to Hollywood and start out with a turkey. It’s difficult to recover from. You can wait occasionally with baited breath to see a director follow up their opening home run and be crushingly disappointed with what comes next. Richard Kelly, director of Donnie Darko is a prime example. I couldn’t even name most of the films he did after, but I’ve seen a couple and they were awful. Southland Tales…okay, I can name one. Often too, you are expected to reproduce a little of what you did in the first film, so you can’t entirely breakaway from that. It took Quentin Tarantino a while to move away from crime and gangsters (in actuality, to a point he never has, although that may just be his own preference).
Coogler’s first film was the exceptionally good and engrossing, Fruitvale Station. It wasn’t just a breakout for Coogler of course, it was the film which really bought Michael B. Jordan to prominence. Such was the synergy between actor and director too, that Coogler has yet to direct a film without Jordan in his cast. The true life film highlighted the last day of Oscar Grant III before being unlawfully shot and killed by police officers. Shot on a meagre budget of 900k Dollars, the film made a significant profit but more importantly received unanimous praise from critics and viewers as a piece of important and socially relevant cinema.
It was the success of Fruitvale Station which lead to Stallone (initially) reluctantly handing over his creation, Rocky Balboa, over to Coogler to pen and then direct Creed which would see Rocky return as mentor to Adonis Creed (son of Apollo). In 2006, Stallone had already more than adequately closed the franchise with a heartfelt and satisfying goodbye with Rocky Balboa. There wasn’t a great need, money aside, to revisit the character(s). On paper too, a ‘spinoff’ with a fairly novice writer/director, with the ever looming presence of a creatively erratic legend like Stallone, could only end in mediocrity if lucky.
What Coogler did deliver however, was something of a miracle. Creed did a marvellous job of adhering to the Rocky formula while introducing a new character who will inevitably take the centre as this splits off into a new (potential) franchise. The formula stuff: the montages, the underdog with a lion’s heart and the final bout were all classic Rocky and done exceptionally well. What really elevated this was the writing. Coogler created a fully formed Creed Jnr, weighted down by his bloodline, a father he never met. Despite growing up in affluent surroundings he can’t escape his ghetto beginnings. A troubled black kid growing up without a father, and then a mother. The mansion he hasn’t earned, the jobs handed to him because of his stepmother, and all the while he wants to be a fighter and become a success at it in his own right. Michael B. Jordan took the role of Adonis Creed. He’s superb. Not only that but Coogler treated the established Balboa with respect and inspired a performance from Stallone that was up there with his best work (the very original film). Stallone would earn an Oscar nomination for his performance. An actor who despite his now two nominations, has spent large portions of his career, much maligned as an actor by critics. A director who’d not even hit 30 had inspired Stallone to give something extra in a film and characters he’d taken out of Sly’s hands to an extent and into his own. The film had no right to be as good as it was and it took critics completely by surprise.
Creed as well as doing better than expected critically, also surprised many with its performance at the box office. It was a big hit and naturally that paved the way for bigger offers coming to Coogler. There’s always a danger at this point. You take the wrong turn and you could never get the same sort of chance again and further, with Hollywood studios you begin to come up against potential creative barriers. The more money invested the more people there are with ideas you may need to adhere to. Coogler was offered Black Panther, a long gestating Marvel picture (Wesley Snipes I recall was rumoured even before Blade). The character has already appeared and had his introduction. He was one of the more interesting additions in Captain America: Civil War. Coogler took the project on as a fan but also in the knowledge that there is a very solid line of MCU films to match up to (At least) and a ready-made fanbase who want to see their expectation of the characters and world brought to life.
Fans and especially critics have spoken now and Coogler has struck gold again. Currently sitting on a Marvel high of 97% on Rotten Tomatoes (I know, I know, we’re not supposed to pay attention to RT anymore apparently), many have described it as intelligent, socially relevent, culturally important, and more importantly driven by character development to a level not yet seen in the MCU (particularly as far as the ‘villain’ goes). The film has a world that is different, visually engaging and exciting and the film manages to stand firmly in its own right. A lot of the Marvel films can tend to blend into one. There’s a formula that clearly works and with a few exceptions, they’ll rarely break from that. That’s not to say Black Panther entirely disregards that. Of course it still puts in enough of what fans clearly want to see, but the point is, Coogler has been allowed the freedom to write ‘his’ script and direct ‘his’ vision. As with Creed, he’s struck that perfect balance between the expectation and something fresh.
So what next? At this point with the inevitable box office success that will follow, Coogler will have carte blanche on his next project. He could take any number of studio offerings that will come his way or go indie again. He’s now at the point where he’s a successful black director with the film world at his feet and this in turn raises the weight on his shoulders because he will open doors for more directors of colour who can tell stories with a different perspective in a time where a need for diversity and equality is paramount. Idris Elba recently debunked the call for him to be the next Bond, just for the sake of being a ‘black Bond.’ That is undoubtedly true. Doing a black Bond or a female Bond just for the sake of doing it as a marketing/PR exercise is no good. However, if there’s one person who could successfully bring us Elba as Bond and make it important, intelligent and for the right reasons, it would be Coogler.
Of course that leads on to the prospect of revisiting another character that has scope for re-invention again. We’ll undoubtedly see Black Panther 2 offered to him. Established characters and stories aside, the prospect of Coogler going entirely original is also very exciting. What can he conjure from something without source? He also has a standing and an ability to continue telling socially relevant timely stories too. In addition, there would be no surprise at all if Coogler was to find himself recognised by the Oscar Academy before long. I think it’s a matter of when and not if.
Tom Jolliffe
