Both ‘Black Panther’ and its sequel ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ have finished putting Ryan Coogler’s name into orbit. Even ‘Creed’ has given pedigree to a name that is standing out in the current mainstream for his way of introducing humanity and powerful ideas about the racial experience into the world in films usually whitewashed to the extreme so as not to make anyone uncomfortable.
For this very reason, it is worth inquiring into its roots, its film influences. In various interviews he has highlighted several of his favorite references, and here we select three great movies that can also be seen on different streaming platforms.
‘Do what you must’ (‘Do the Right Thing’, 1989)
Address: Spike Lee. Distribution: Spike Lee, Rosie Perez, Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Giancarlo Esposito.
It’s hard to escape the masterpiece of the most important African-American director of all time when you talk about another black director who precisely covers racial aspects in his work. For Coogler, even though she’s from Oakland and not New York, there’s something about “Do the Right Thing” that “feels like home.”
Undoubtedly, it refers to the fervent heat that runs through the Spike Lee film (and not only because of its heated plot). Sometimes brutal, sometimes beautiful, his multifaceted portrayal of racial tensions in a New York neighborhood features qualities that make it really resoundinglike that life with which he fills the characters, the beautiful photography of Ernest Dickerson or his perfect way of escalating the tension.
Watch on Amazon Prime Video and on Filmin | Criticism in Espinof
‘A prophet’ (‘Un prophete’, 2009)
Address: Jacques Audiard. Distribution: Tahar Rahim, Niels Arestrup, Adel Bencherif, Reda Kateb, Hichem Yacoubi.
It’s certainly a particular choice for favorite movie of all time, but for Coogler it’s certainly on that level as one of the movies he’s seen the most. “I saw her the first time I left the country, she means a lot to me” gives an especially personal nuance to what many would see as a particularly hard story and not exactly easy in any way.
But it is, without a doubt, a transcendental work. An incredible twist on both film noir and prison thriller, where Jacques Audiard once again shows his ability to reinvent genres of North American adult cinema. It certainly serves as a scare to a brutal social realism story in which a young Arab ends up trapped in the clutches of the Corsican mafia.
See on HBO Max, on Acontra+ and on Filmin | Criticism in Espinof
‘Fish Tank’ (2009)
Address: Andrea Arnold. Distribution: Katie Jarvis, Michael Fassbender, Kierston Wareing, Harry Treadaway, Jason Maza.
Another curious choice that is out of the ordinary, but which is especially pertinent in how he approaches social issues in his films, especially in his indie debut ‘Fruitvale Station’. With an air of commitment, almost Ken Loach even more in guerilla cinema mode, Andrea Arnold does a interesting female character portrait complex and interesting.
‘Fish Tank’ tells us the story of Mia, a young teenager marginalized by the educational system and by her peers due to her unstable nature. Despite appearing that she deliberately seeks isolation, the entrance of Michael Fassbender’s character gradually reveals his real need for connectionthus showing the complex contradictions of a period like the one this young woman lives.
See in Filmin