Name three great scenes Coogler has directed…
Dude is a “good” director and a solid screenplay guy, but this shoehorning him into a great director position shyt isn’t going to work.
And just so we’re clear, the working definition of “great” is a singular moment where everything that has preceded in the film is either shifted—or expanded—in a way that produces an incredibly visceral experience as a byproduct of this scene: it’s the coalescing of the score, the story, the cinematography, the themes, etc., to one moment.
Hell, I’ll give you two examples: one is the scene near the end of Whiplash where J.K. Simmons tells Miles Teller’s character, “You think I’m fukking stupid? I know it was you, Neiman,” as he’s trying to torpedo Neiman’s musical career (like Neiman did his).
Another great scene is the whole sequence in the ending of the Dark Knight after Batman says, “I killed those people. That’s what I can be.” The entire movie, the choices the characters have made prior, the score, cinematography, and so on completely pivot and make sense once Batman says those words and we get the montage with stuff like, “Sometimes, people deserve more. Sometimes, people deserve to have their faith rewarded.”
Anyways, Coogler almost had a few great scenes in the first Creed movie. I’d say the training montage after Rocky has cancer might even make it into my “great” realm, but that’s one damn scene out of all his movies.
He’s a young dude, though. He still has time to become an auteur kind of director, but he hasn’t reached that status, yet.