PLGRM

I love sports movies. My longstanding favorites are The Natural and Any Given Sunday.

However, after this past weekend, I am moving the CREED franchise into the top spot. These movies, taken together, are a masterpiece.

I did not know what I was getting into, back in 2015, watching the first CREED movie. But it was arresting. That’s the only way I know to describe it. Michael B. Jordan was superb, Tessa Thompson is always a joy to watch, and Sly Stallone gave what might fairly be called the performance of his career.

When I saw that CREED II was available during a long-haul airplane flight, I cautiously turned it on. Would I be disappointed? I would not be.

It is not simply that CREED II is a good movie – it undeniably is – it is the theme that cut me to the heart. Featuring a reprise of the character Ivan Drago, this installment explored the relationship of fathers to sons and what it means to inhabit a legacy.

I wept openly on the plane.

I watched CREED III over the weekend and was – again – struck with the way boxing movies allow us to contend with the past, starring the problematic (but no less talented) Jonathan Majors as Donnie’s antagonist.

CREED III is also Jordan’s directorial debut, and there is a sequence in the final fight that proves he has the goods. I almost scrubbed forward in the scene, and am glad I didn’t. It was an inventive choice and one that elevates the trope of “big boss battle.”

Sports movies are never about sports. They are about who we are as human beings. There are no better movies to explore that, in my opinion, than CREED I, II, and III.