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BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER – Ludwig Göransson

November 15, 2022 Leave a comment

Original Review by Jonathan Broxton

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS PLOT SPOILERS. IF YOU HAVE NOT YET SEEN THE SHOW, YOU MIGHT WANT TO CONSIDER WAITING UNTIL AFTER YOU HAVE DONE SO TO READ IT.

The death of actor Chadwick Boseman in August 2020 resulted in an outpouring of grief and affection from the entire Hollywood community, but also necessitated wholesale changes to Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the planned sequel to the 2018 blockbuster Marvel superhero film Black Panther, which was already in pre-production at the time of Boseman’s death. With the film’s lead gone, director Ryan Coogler, along with co-screenwriter Joe Robert Cole, re-fashioned the film to be not only a fun and interesting superhero action film, but also a surprisingly poignant meditation on death, grief, and legacy; despite not being there in person, Boseman’s presence weighs heavy on the film, giving it a depth and meaning that most films of this type do not contain. In terms of plot, Wakanda Forever sees Shuri, the younger sister of King T’Challa, having to step up and be a leader in her own right when her country comes under attack from a mysterious race of people seemingly descended from ancient Mayans, and who have a powerful leader of their own. The film has a groundbreaking headline cast made up almost entirely of black women – Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Florence Kasumba, Dominique Thorne, Michaela Coel, Angela Bassett – with Winston Duke, Tenoch Huerta, Martin Freeman, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus in key supporting roles. Read more…

Academy Award Winners 2018

February 24, 2019 Leave a comment

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) have announced the winners of the 91st Academy Awards, honoring the best in film in 2018.

In the Best Original Score category composer Ludwig Göransson won the award for his score for the box office blockbuster Marvel super hero movie Black Panther. In accepting his award, Göransson said:

“Um, wow. Thank you, Ryan Coogler. Ryan… Ryan, working with you has been an incredible honor. I remember twelve years ago we were sitting in our dorm at USC writing the score for your first short film, and we’re here twelve years later, you know, celebrating one of the most important cinematic moments in history. I want to share this award with all the incredible African artists I worked with on the score – Baba Maal, Massamba Diop, Magatte Saw – and all the classical musicians in London that recorded on the score. And everyone… I also want to share this award with my mom, and dad, and sister – they insisted I play guitar- and my wife Serena, I love you so much. Thank you!”

The other nominees were Terence Blanchard for Blackkklansman, Nicholas Britell for If Beale Street Could Talk, Alexandre Desplat for Isle of Dogs, and Marc Shaiman for Mary Poppins Returns.

In the Best Original Song category, the winners were Stefani Germanotta (Lady Gaga), Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando, and Andrew Wyatt for “Shallow” from A Star is Born.

The other nominees were Kendrick Lamar Duckworth, Mark Spears (Sounwave), Anthony Tiffith, and Solana Rowe (SZA) for “All the Stars” from Black Panther; David Rawlings and Gillian Welch for “When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings” from The Ballad of Buster Scruggs; Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman for “The Place Where Lost Things Go” from Mary Poppins Returns; and Diane Warren for “I’ll Fight” from RGB.

BLACK PANTHER – Ludwig Göransson

February 20, 2018 4 comments

Original Review by Jonathan Broxton

The utter dominance of comic book action movies at the American box office continues with the success of Black Panther, the 18th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s the origin story of a character who appeared for the first time in Captain America: Civil War in 2016, and explores the history of the fictional African nation of Wakanda, which is the most technologically advanced civilization on Earth thanks to its unlimited supplies of the metal vibranium, but pretends to be a poor third world country to hide its power. Chadwick Boseman plays T’Challa, the new King of Wakanda, who takes up the mantle of the Black Panther after his father’s death in Captain America: Civil War; returning home to begin leading his country, T’Challa finds himself facing a threat in the shape of Eric Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan), a mercenary with ties to Wakanda, whose actions send the entire country into a civil war of its own. The film co-stars Lupita Nyongo, Danai Gurira, Martin Freeman, Daniel Kaluuya, Letitia Wright, Angela Bassett, Forest Whitaker, Sterling K. Brown, and Andy Serkis, and is directed by Ryan Coogler. Read more…