“As of this writing, the Academy Awards is just a couple of days away and, in all likelihood, Mahershala Ali will win the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his portrayal of piano prodigy Dr. Don Shirley in Green Book (a.k.a. The Cute Racism Movie). Even though he did a decent job with that performance, it’s very telling how the Academy nominated Ali for playing a reserved, dignified, African-American man who always keeps a cool head even as he’s being driven through the most hella racist parts of the South, and didn’t bother to nominate Michael B. Jordan for his awesomely angry turn in Black Panther.
“As the central antagonist Erik ‘Killmonger’ Stevens, Jordan is Black rage personified. He doesn’t just want to take down the white people who have enslaved and oppressed his brothas and sistas. He also wants to put a hurtin’ on the Black people who killed his old man and left him an orphan so long ago, turning him into a merciless mercenary who comes to Wakanda to wipe out Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa and usurp the throne. What makes Killmonger a captivating, unsettling and --dare I say it -- sympathetic villain is not just how director Ryan Coogler and co-writer Joe Robert Cole fleshed out the character, but also how Jordan embodies him.
“In virtually every shot, you can see the pain and anguish on his face. (To quote my friend and fellow film critic Sean Burns, Jordan hurts in this movie.) He doesn’t make Killmonger out to be just another, run-of-the-mill Marvel villain selfishly out to rule/destroy the gotdamn world. He’s a man who’s fed up with white supremacy (and the Black people who won’t do anything about it) and wants to launch a full-scale revolution so Black folk all over the world can finally have the upper hand. It’s not every day that the MCU gives us a heavy who inspired thinkpieces debating whether or not dude’s Evil Plan was actually all that evil. (Just Google ‘Killmonger Was Right’ and you’ll see all the pieces -- and T-shirt merchandise.)
“Unfortunately, Jordan won’t get the Oscar he so rightly deserves for this performance. I guess the Academy likes to give awards only to Negroes who don’t act like they wanna burn this whole muthafucka down.” ~ Craig D. Lindsey
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