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Ranking Ryan Coogler Films

Ryan Coogler is one of the most prominent black directors working today. He has made five films so far and all of them garnered critical acclaim. Ranging from serious dramas to genre fare, this is an eclectic filmography so far, though the movies range in quality from truly great to only serviceable. Here is my ranking of all five Ryan Coogler-directed films.

5. Creed

Creed was the attempt to bring back the Rocky franchise and it succeeded, but as someone who isn’t a big fan of that series, I found this one to be tedious and forgettable. It has its moments with the relationship between the two main characters being heartwarming, but for the most part this is just a rip-off of the original movie with a tired and frustratingly familiar storyline, boring characters and an annoying third act. I get the praise for its acting performances, but every other aspect was underwhelming here.

4. Fruitvale Station

Fruitvale Station was an important movie for Michael B. Jordan and Ryan Coogler, catapulting both of their careers successfully. It’s well directed, very well acted and effective in not making the protagonist a martyr, but a grounded person. With that being said, this is more of an important than great film – it is overly heavy-handed in its approach and it hinges way too much on that final violent sequence, making the rest of the story almost pointless. It was a solid debut, but far from his best effort.

3. Sinners

Sinners was a very disappointing viewing experience for me. Coogler had a very good idea for this project and the movie is clearly very ambitious and superbly crafted on the technical front. The first half is a culturally rich and very well made period piece musical, but then the second half jettisoned that for a straightforward vampire action flick in this genre-mash up that only partially worked. Sinners is exciting, fun and stylish for sure, but it was ultimately undone by its on-the-nose, painfully obvious treatment of its metaphors and a typically obnoxious victimhood narrative that continues to plague many black filmmakers.

2. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is overplotted as it deals with so many plot points, characters and themes. It is also overlong at two and a half hours and messy in its pacing. Thus, it is inferior to its terrific predecessor. Still, this is a very satisfactory sequel that features a particularly powerful performance from Angela Bassett and an amazing arc for Shuri. The Talokan storyline is quite engaging while Namor is one of the better MCU villains so far. It’s a well made, very well scored and quite emotionally involving sequel that features a couple of powerful sequences throughout, but it could have been more streamlined overall.

1. Black Panther

Immigration, the division of old traditions and new technology and ideas in one country and especially foreign policy and the relations between Africa and America are some of the themes and issues explored in Black Panther – a film that is the most political and sophisticated superhero outing yet. It’s not a perfect film as its VFX are questionable, but the film perfectly transports you to Africa thanks to stunning costumes, sets and score. It has a wonderful message and it mostly favors dialogue over action while also providing us excellent performances across the board and a fantastic roster of characters. This is how you do a story about black culture properly. It’s one of the best superhero flicks to date and Coogler’s greatest film.