   [**Tags**|adoption]Creed, along with Straight Outta Compton, has been the topic of hot debate since the Oscar nominees were released a few weeks ago. I admit I have not seen all of the nominees (nor have I seen Compton), but I am sure that Creed is clearly better than at least one of the nominees and was snubbed in multiple categories. From an adoption standpoint, I wish parts of it had been better fleshed out, but it's just as important a film for the older end of the adoption community as it is for the African American one.Film Grade: AAdoption Message: BIt would be easy to dismiss Creed as just another film in the Rocky franchise, but it is so much more than that. This franchise, when at its best, is about the classic man versus himself struggle, and Creed returns to this core aspect of the first film. However, instead of having Sylvester Stallone try to enter some sort of senior boxing circuit, this film centers on Adonis Johnson, the illegitimate son of Apollo Creed, Rocky's great foil for the first two films. Adonis is played by Michael B. Jordan, who last worked with director Ryan Coogler on Fruitville Station. The two are clearly in synch again, as Jordan provides an excellent, nuanced performance that enables you to glimpse his inner struggle without bashing you over the head with it. Adonis is clearly chasing and fighting his father at the same time (in one scene, quite literally), and it is not clear until the very end of the film why he is so driven to the boxing ring and so resistant to claim his father's mantle. In any event, Adonis is driven to seek Rocky out as a coach and mentor in the ring, and Rocky, after some hand-wringing (given that he was in Apollo Creed's corner and failed to throw in the towel when Apollo was killed) finally agrees. There is good chemistry between Sylvester Stallone and Jordan, including a particularly funny scene where Rocky writes out exercises on paper and Adonis immediately uploads them to the cloud. Rocky doesn't quite assume a father-like figure for Adonis, but - as Adonis himself puts it - becomes more of an uncle figure. It is a well played inter-generational, inter-racial relationship that makes the middle of the film work.One reviewer commented that Creed may have missed out in the Oscar race because it is about one man's struggle and not the Struggle. That said, the issue is likely more that Coogler lets race play in the background instead of wielding it like a cudgel. The film opens in a nearly all-African American juvenile detention facility, where Adonis is fighting with another African American boy. In an era of Black Lives Matter, the point should be hard to miss. The change in demographics in Philadelphia and the inclusion of the city's significant African American community give this film a different feel than the Italian Market Philadelphia of Rocky, and a more nuanced view of what is going on in urban centers that anything else out right now.That this film, director, and star did not get nominated is, to me, a travesty, as with apologies to Steven Spielberg, all three are clearly superior to the superficial and blunt Bridge of Spies. Stallone is all right but nothing particularly special; the irony in the comparison with Bridge of Spies is that the supporting actor category is the only one where the Spielberg film (with Mark Rylance) is better. The adoption material, like the racial content, is subdued. As an adoptive father with two African American sons, I wish it was more to the forefront, but I cannot fault Coogler for making the film he envisioned instead of the one I wanted. Early in the film, Adonis is adopted by Apollo Creed's widow Mary Anne Creed (Phylicia Rashad), who seeks Adonis out after his birth mother (about whom we know next to nothing) dies. Mary Anne takes Adonis in and raises him as her own; unfortunately, this is all disposed of very quickly in the film, and we don't get a good view of what motivates Mary Anne other than Adonis being the last tie to Apollo (this is a criminal underuse of Rashad, but I digress). What we do see is that she cares for Adonis even though she does not at a fundamental understand his desire to get into the ring and follow in his father's footsteps. The two part on less than good terms, but you get the sense that Mary Anne has not abandoned Adonis; just that they disagree over this issue and that she is concerned for his welfare. By the end of the film, Mary Anne has come to terms with Adonis's desire to fight, and indeed sends him a version of his father's boxing outfit to validate his claim as a Creed. The allegory here for adoptive children who seek out their birth parents - and the concerns by adoptive parents about what that will do to their relationship with the adoptive children - is easy to miss for those outside the adoption community, but should be clear to those inside it. In the end, Adonis makes clear that his intent is not to reject Mary Anne, but rather to prove that he 'was not a mistake,' which is an issue that any adoptive family knows may be looming in the background. |
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