Anisha Koilpillai, Staff Writer
Creed is one of the several movies that have an Oscar nomination this year. However, the nomination might come as a surprise to those of you that have actually seen the film.
While several fans of the film agree that Michael B. Jordan, who plays the titular character of the film, is an essential part of what made the film stand out, Jordan did not receive a nomination for his film. However, Sylvester Stallone got nominated for his supporting role as Rocky Balboa. As many of you might have heard, the acting categories for this year’s awards are once again all white, but that is not what I’m going to talk about. However, I’m going to talk about how many people thought that Jordan deserved a nomination for his lead role in the film (thus creating some diversity in the acting categories), and why I agree.
Michael B. Jordan is definitely a rising star from what I have seen in the film. Jordan’s convincing performance as Apollo Creed’s illegitimate child definitely added a lot to the film that made it enjoyable for many who viewed the film. We learn that Jordan’s Adonis Johnson grew up as a troubled child without a mother or a father, which caused him to bounce from foster home to foster home, often spending periods of time in a juvenile detention center. Flash forward a bit, and we see Adonis as a young adult who spends his weeks working in an office job with a promotion waiting for him, and spends his weekends boxing in Mexico. After gyms in Los Angeles refuse to train him, he decides he needs to make a change in his life. He quits his job and moves to Philadelphia in hopes of learning from Rocky.
The journey that Adonis makes as a character is one that was fascinating to watch. The audience sees a young man with a troubled past struggling to pursue his dream of becoming a professional boxer. His first big fight comes against a European champion, whose manager only wants the fight to happen if Adonis changes his stage name to Creed. The moments leading up to the match were probably the best in the film, although the fight itself was quite amazing. Seeing Adonis pushing himself as hard as he could makes the audience realize that this transcends the film into real life. It is obvious that Michael B. Jordan put a lot of time and effort into making his character appear as realistic as possible, and yet Jordan still comes up short of receiving the recognition he deserves.
Say what you want about the Oscar nominations this year, but to me, Michael B. Jordan definitely deserved a nomination. While all of the actors nominated this year were fantastic in their films, at least the ones I’ve seen, it really can be frustrating for avid movie fans when an actor you thought gave an outstanding performance ends up being snubbed at every major award ceremony, regardless of race. So while it may be of interest to watch the nominated actors in their films, to me, it’s also important to recognize the actors that didn’t get nominated, but probably should have. Hey, there’s always next year, right?
Photo courtesy of Creative Commons