From the Past to the Future: Till & Wakanda Forever

If you go to the theatre right now, you can treat yourself to a particularly powerful double feature with two very different but equally remarkable movies that feature an abundance of Black talent in front of and behind the camera. One is a story of this country’s horrific racist past. And the other is the sequel to a futuristic fantasy of Black excellence. Either way, you can’t go wrong.

Till: Almost every one I know has refused to see this movie because it will be too sad. And yes, I can confirm that I sobbed. But oh it is such a good movie, such a deeply moving and beautiful portrait of a heartbroken and devastated mother who channeled her overwhelming grief for her son into something powerful. Directed by Chinonye Chukwu, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Keith Beauchamp and Michael Reilly, this movie takes its time, never rushing a single scene, and allows every character to display the riot of emotions that they experienced in the wake of this traumatic event.

Danielle Deadwyler is an absolute revelation as Mamie Bradley, the mother of Emmett Till (played by the heartbreakingly charming Jalyn Hall), the fourteen-year-old boy who was brutally lynched in Mississippi in 1955. The film tells this story from the very beginning, showing us how close Mamie and her son were, and how nervous she was to send him off to stay with relatives in Mississippi after he had been born and raised in Chicago and never experienced the deeply segregated racism of the Jim Crow South. We then see the events leading to his horrific murder, and the subsequent aftermath. 

This is a brutal story that we are all familiar with from textbooks and online articles, but this movie channels Mamie's emotion and heartbreak in a searing way. We see the guilt of her relatives who couldn't save Emmett when his murderers abducted him from their home, and the absolutely disgusting proceedings of the court case where the white defendants were allowed to brazenly lie while the Black witnesses, despite fearing for their lives, bravely offered up the truth, but to no avail. Is it an infuriating and painful movie? Of course. The fact that it took until March 2022 to pass the Emmett Till Antilynching Act in this country is a reminder that we are still barely making any progress since 1955. But it's an important and inspiring movie as well, about the strength and courage of Mamie Bradley and the other Civil Rights leaders who kept fighting despite constant horrors and indignities. It's a useful reminder that while a society may be the absolute worst, it always contains people who are striving to make it better.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever: This was one of the most anticipated movies of the year and yes, I can reassure you, it absolutely does not disappoint. Like the original film, this is a brilliant movie that features captivating production design, music, costumes, and Afro-futurism giving us a vision of an African superpower that the rest of the world regards with awe. However, in this sequel, director Ryan Coogler (who also co-wrote the screenplay with Joe Robert Cole), introduces us to the new civilization of Talokan, led by Namor (Tenoch Huerta Mejia), a half-human half-god who has been leading his people since they fled underwater to escape the colonizers who were enslaving the Maya. They also have vibranium, and now their existence is being threatened by the United States and other countries who are trying to get their hands on this invaluable metal.

What follows is a thoroughly intriguing plot where we have two civilizations that have traditionally been oppressed by white Europeans now facing a conflict against each other that has been instigated by those same white folk. This movie may be nearly three hours long, but you will be riveted as you watch this marvelous interplay between people of color who have been pitted against each other by their oppressors and now have to deal with the ugly human thirst for vengeance. There's plenty of action, distinct stunt choreography, and sublime cinematography to keep your eyes glued to the screen.

Of course, this is also a movie about grief. Chadwick Boseman, the actor who played King T'Challa/Black Panther in the first film, died in 2020, and this movie fully grapples with the death of that character and the impact it has had on his surviving family members. Angela Bassett and Letitia Wright are fantastic as Queen Ramonda and Shuri, T'Challa's mother and sister, who are mourning his loss and dealing with it in entirely different ways and finding it hard to come together as a family. If you are mourning the loss of Boseman, this is a movie that will help you process your grief in a myriad ways, and it's a loving and beautiful ode to an actor that we all dearly miss. It's sad to think of the many directions this franchise could have gone if he was still alive, but this movie is a fitting tribute and a reminder that the filmmakers still have plenty of ideas up their sleeve to ably steer this ship in the years to come. Black Panther was one of my all-time favorite movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and with this installment, it continues to be a highlight of the genre. Wakanda Forever!