Every Ryan Coogler Movie - And Where To Stream Them All
Few directors have as pristine a record as Ryan Coogler. Since emerging from nowhere in 2013, he has proved himself adept at low-budget indie, franchise revival and mega-budget comic-book flicks, with all his work maintaining a strongly socially aware quality that lesser film-makers would lose in all the hoopla. His latest film Sinners might just be his best yet. To prepare for that, check out our guide to every movie Ryan Coogler has written or directed - and where you can stream them.
Coogler’s debut as a writer/director was made for less than a million dollars, but went on to earn 17 times that at the box office on the back of rave reviews and adulation on the festival circuit. It is the gently devastating true story of Oscar Grant, who was shot dead by a transport police officer at Fruitvale district BART station in Oakland, California in the early hours of New Year’s Day, 2009. Coogler simply shows us the last day in Grant’s life, bringing out all the texture and nuance of what would otherwise have been unremarkable interactions with his girlfriend and mother - by the time the fateful confrontation with the cops occurs, we know Oscar will die but are desperate for it to somehow turn out differently.
Such was the reaction to Fruitvale Station that Coogler and his debut film’s star, Michael B Jordan, were immediately ushered into the big leagues and entrusted with the seventh film in the Rocky franchise. Jordan is Adonis Creed, the son of Rocky’s opponent from the first two films, Apollo Creed. Rocky himself (Sylvester Stallone) takes Adonis on, training him for a tilt at the world light heavyweight championship that nobody thinks the challenger has a chance of winning… Creed is more or less a straight retread of the original Rocky story, particularly in its final act, but Coogler brings a new authenticity to it that would sustain two Creed sequels.
Another giant leap forward for Coogler saw him put in charge of one of the most eagerly anticipated additions to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, at a time when any MCU movie was virtually guaranteed to be a massive hit. Coogler takes the challenge in his stride, giving Black Panther plenty of spectacle while staying true to the serious racial politics of the story. His take on the utopian kingdom of Wakanda is, once again, crowd-pleasing mainstream material that still feels grounded. The increasingly famous Michael B Jordan stays on the golden Coogler train by starring as Killmonger, the villain of the tale.
Four years after bringing Wakanda to the world, Coogler and Black Panther returned for a sequel that somehow overcame the loss of the first film’s lead performer, Chadwick Boseman, who had died in 2019. The second film is much more female-focused, with bigger roles for Letitia Wright and Lupita Nyong'o and a heavier emphasis on the feminist principles that were present in the original. As usual, though, Coogler effortlessly weaves such potentially heavy themes into a supremely watchable piece of megabucks entertainment that isn’t quite as propulsive in its narrative as Black Panther, but is faultlessly acted and directed with real heart.
Coogler didn’t have a writing or directing credit on Creed II, which was more Sylvester Stallone’s baby, but he co-wrote the storyline for the third movie in the series, which just about makes Creed III an authentic R Coogler joint. Adonis Creed (Michael B Jordan, who also directs) is now a retired champion, tempted back into the ring to see off his former friend Dame Anderson (Jonathan Majors), who bears a grudge against his childhood former friend due to an incident years ago that landed Dame in prison. With Jordan successfully mounting the crunching fight scenes that Coogler had mastered in the first Creed film, Creed III keeps up the standards of the Rocky/Creed franchise.
Coogler’s new film is arguably the first where he can be himself and give his talent full rein. An original creation of Coogler’s rather than a contribution to an existing franchise/universe, Sinners is a thrillingly imaginative blend of supernatural horror and knotty American history, set in the southern United States in the 1930s. Michael B Jordan maintains his fruitful relationship with the writer/director, playing twin brothers named Smoke and Stack. Their homecoming, after lives spent seeing all the awful things that the military and organised crime could show them, turns out to be more horrific than anything they’ve encountered before… to say more would spoil it, but just know that this is Coogler at his best, at least for now.
Check out our guide below on where to watch all Ryan Coogler’s movies, streaming in the United Kingdom!
