Bek: So we should probably establish that I’m a huge fan of the Rocky movies, and you haven’t seen any of them, right?

Jack: No, this is my first Rocky. But I don’t think that stopped me from enjoying the film, as they do so much to establish who Rocky is and what he represents for people like Creed. They take kind of the same strategy as the people who made The Force Awakens, where the new characters treat the established ones as these legendary figures. Rocky is as iconic in the world of Rocky as he is in our world, and that gives new viewers kind of a way into his story.

Bek: OK, so I have a question for you, because I was unable to think about this objectively. What did you think of Sylvester Stallone’s performance?

Jack: I liked it a lot. From what I had seen him in before and in the trailer, I didn’t expect him to deliver as moving a performance as he did. Like the scene in the graveyard when he reads the news to his friends.

Bek: Because part of the premise of the movie is that everyone’s gone. Adrian, Paulie, Apollo. Instead it’s just Rocky and this new generation.

Jack: Yeah, and it’s interesting because he begins the movie as a recluse, but the graveyard scene shows that he is still in conversation with the people who are absent from his life. He is still connected to them.

Bek: That’s true. And very important. Because for me, the way that Rocky is written in this film, and the way Stallone plays him, is probably the only thing that the makers of Creed needed to get right in terms of tying it into the franchise, and they absolutely did. It was a really powerful meditation on the kind of masculinity Rocky represents, and I don’t think that anyone but Stallone could have played the bits they asked him to play. In all the recent movies he’s written, he has tried to convey a sense of what it’s like to have been this incredible, very powerful physical being, and to see that erode. And I think that weirdly, the new writers get him there in a way he hasn’t been able to in films like The Expendables. He delivers every ‘old man’ line with dignity, that other, better actors are unable to do. Case in point: Robert de Niro and Al Pacino.

Jack: Yeah, I totally agree. And beyond Rocky, I feel like this is a really good standalone feature. I haven’t seen many films from the genre, but I guess this film did everything I wanted and expected from a boxing movie.

Bek: Like a likable hero, which is sometimes hard to find in this genre. And especially in boxing movies, which add ridiculous plot points just to raise the stakes.

Jack: Exactly. As you say, a lot hinges on the performances, and I think we should mention Michael B. Jordan, who plays the protagonist, Adonis Creed, and who too, is just as convincing when he’s playing those moments of intense emotional vulnerability and sensitivity as he is when he’s behaving in that hyper-masculine macho way.

Bek: Kinda like a young Stallone.

Jack: Which is kind of related to what you were saying about masculinity; even while a man’s at his physical peak, I think that kind of aggressive macho facade isn’t something you can keep up all the time, and it’s not really something you should aspire to either. I think this movie makes a pretty strong case for there being a certain beauty in boxing, and in physical prowess generally, but it also wants to remind us that our emotional ties pretty much form the basis of all our aspirations.

Bek: Yeah, and the movie doesn’t shy away from showing that boxing is a really dangerous sport. And that even as it teaches you all these things about brotherhood and family, it takes a real chunk out of you. And it’s all the more complicated for the fact that Adonis is comfortably wealthy when he decides he wants to box. And the movie shows, rather than tells you, why boxing is so alluring.

Jack: One other thing I want to mention is the music, and I think for me if the music had been done badly it would have wrecked this movie for me. It’s so easy for that kind of ‘uplifting’ soundtrack to tip over into being clichéd and emotionally manipulative. But I think Ludwig Göransson (of Community fame) composed a really effective score that underlines all the emotional beats and really adds to the film.

Bek: Which I think underlines why this movie is good: it really pays attention to the detail, and treats its material with respect.

Bek: 4/5

Jack: 5/5