52. BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER (2022) dir. Ryan Coogler

A few years ago, I wrote, regarding their involvement in AVENGERS: ENDGAME, that the Russo Brothers had the most thankless, difficult job in Hollywood. I mean, putting a bow on a decade's worth of loosely connected movies with a library's worth of characters? Tough. But Ryan Coogler has BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER.Chadwick Boseman's death serves as an atom bomb to this movie and no conversation about this will ever be able to avoid the art-imitating-life parallel. So Coogler has to honor Boseman and his character, T'Challa, as heroes in their own rights. He's gotta follow up one of the most successful movies of all-fucking-time. He's gotta fit his pieces within the Marvel paradigm. And, y'know, it's still gotta rule as a superhero movie. I'm not saying the end result is perfect, but would you really rather have the Russos doing this? I didn't think so.---Follow The Movies on ⁠⁠Instagram ⁠⁠& ⁠⁠Letterboxd⁠⁠Financially support the podcast via the ⁠⁠tip jar!