Creed III: Why Sylvester Stallone’s fight club is still worth a ringside seat
You will feel every punch and check that your teeth haven’t come loose while watching Michael B. Jordan in Creed III. But this is more than a fight film.
Creed III (M)
In cinemas
★★★½
If you are a fan of boxing movies, as I am, you will like Creed III, the third instalment in the Creed series and the ninth in the Rocky franchise. The bouts, partly filmed in slow-motion, are as visceral as one has come to expect from this fictional fight club formed by Sylvester Stallone in 1976. You will feel every punch and check that your teeth haven’t come loose.
Yet this is more than a fight film. The toughest drama happens outside the ring and it starts long before Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) is undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.
The star also makes his directorial debut and brings something old and something new to the Rocky locker room. There’s the mandatory pre-fight training routines but even these go up a notch. Rocky Balboa ran up 72 steps in Philadelphia. Adonis Creed pulls a light aircraft along a runway.
As for the new, there is one fight, late in the 116-minute film, that stands out. It’s the climactic moment, as it must be, but what the director does with it, who and what he removes from the shot, is quite brilliant.
It boils the film down, like a brutal three-minute round, to the complexities of male friendship. They were once close as brothers, then distant as strangers. One blames the other and believes he must fight for rectification.
“The only solution to every problem is not a punch in the face,’’ Creed’s rock star wife, Bianca (Tessa Thompson), tells him. “Sometimes it is,’’ he replies. She is right and so is he.
The script is by Zach Baylin, Oscar nominated for King Richard (2021), and Keenan Coogler, who has worked on the Creed series. The dialogue feels real. Cinematographer Kramer Morgenthau worked on Creed II (2018) and has TV series such as Boardwalk Empire and Game of Thrones on his CV.
The movie opens with the moment that defines what is to come. It’s 2002 and the teenage Creed and his slightly older friend Damian, who is a Golden Gloves champion, are involved in a brawl outside a Los Angeles liquor store. A gun is produced. Who starts the fight is important.
Fast forward to the present and Creed has been retired from the ring for three years. He models Ralph Lauren suits, lives in luxury in LA with his wife and pre-teen daughter Amara (Mila Davis-Kent), who is deaf but knows how to throw a punch, as the bully in her class learns.
MORE FILM REVIEWS: Alcoholic single mum blows $190k lottery win | Idris Elba physically and mentally owns it in Luther: The Fallen Sun | Olivia Colman’s lonely cinema manager shows her strength
Dame, to use his ring name (a commanding Jonathan Majors), has just been released from 18 years in prison.
He tracks down his former friend, who runs the now-famous Delphi Boxing Academy, and tells him he wants a shot at the world title. The scenes between the two are superb and have little to do with fighting. As they catch up over burgers in a diner, the look on Creed’s face suggests the inner conflict he has repressed from that bad night outside the liquor store.
He looks nervous and perhaps he has reason to be. “You know what I remember,’’ he tells Dame. “You knocking my ass out.”
He laughs as he says it, and so does Dame, but it feels forced.
“I left boxing,’’ Creed tells his wife when they argue over their daughter’s use of fisticuffs. “Boxing didn’t leave me.”
Nor did it leave Dame. Majors acts like his character fights: no quarter given. Will he land that shot at the world title? Will Creed decide to come out of retirement? Will he and Dame have to glove up and square up?
As this is a Rocky/Creed movie, you can have a fair guess. It’s definitely worth the price of a ringside seat.
-
Champions (M)
In cinemas
★★★½
The sports comedy-drama Champions is Bobby Farrelly’s solo directorial debut. He and his brother Peter have made their names with salty comedies that make us laugh and cringe at the same time, such as Dumb and Dumber and There’s Something About Mary.
Older bro Peter was the first to go it alone and the result was impressive. The racial drama Green Book, which has its humorous moments, was named best picture at the 2019 Academy Awards.
Champions, starring Woody Harrelson, is not going to win any Oscars but – and this goes to the heart of the film – it deserves a clap on the back for having a go.
Harrelson is Marcus, a hot-headed basketball coach. He’s good enough to work at the elite level – the National Basketball Association – but his distinct lack of people skills means he has been shunted down to the minor leagues in Iowa.
He drinks, drives and hits a police car. He then sinks even further, or so he thinks, when he agrees to avoid jail by doing community service. His assignment is to coach a group of intellectually disabled young adults who have formed a basketball team.
All of the actors in the team, called the Friends, rather than the Beasts or other fierce names sported by rival sides, are intellectually disabled and they are the stars of this movie.
Some have autism, some Down’s syndrome, some brain injuries from accidents. The naturalness of their performances is wonderful to watch.
They are stroppy, funny and loving. They talk about sex. When the coach says he doesn’t have a girlfriend, team member Consentino (Madison Tevlin) says she is not surprised. “You’re no McConaughey.”
That’s one of the in-jokes that pepper Mark Rizzo’s script. One of Harrelson’s greatest performances was opposite Matthew McConaughey in the first season of True Detective.
As with the boxing movie I have reviewed this week, Creed III, the real drama happens outside of the sporting arena as the stories of the Friends come to light.
They train at a recreation centre managed by the laid-back Julio (Cheech Marin). Darius (Joshua Felder), by far the best player, refuses to play for Marcus. Johnny (Kevin Iannucci) refuses to shower. Showtime (Bradley Edens) will throw the ball only with his back to the hoop.
We – and the coach – learn why and it is poignant. This is a story of bravery.
The coach does have a girlfriend of sorts, Alex (Kaitlin Olson), who is Johnny’s sister, something he did not know when they first met via a hook-up app.
She’s a struggling actor who pays the rent by performing Shakespeare to schools. The bard is summoned at one point during a tight game. It’s perhaps his debut as a slam-dunk strategist.
This 124-minute movie is an English language remake of the 2018 Spanish film Campeones (Champions). It does have a few look-or-look-away Farrelly moments, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but overall it is a warm-hearted, feel-good movie.
On the court, the championship question is will Showtime, when it matters most, pull off one of his backward shots. When the coach asks teammate Marlon (Casey Metcalfe) about this, he replies, “I’ve been playing with him for five years and he’s never even hit the rim.”
The coach looks exasperated and Marlon continues, “But he’s due.” That sums up this movie. All the Friends are due something, starting with respect.