Happy Friday. First on the docket this week is the newest comic book hero to grace the silver screen, Black Panther.  The movie follows the events directly following Captain America: Civil War when the crown prince, played phenomenally by Chadwick Boseman, returns to the technological metropolis in the African nation of Wakanda to take his place on the throne.  Unlike most of the Marvel origin stories, there’s no internal struggle about becoming a hero or attempt to keep his identity secret from those he’s protecting.

Instead, we see the young King enter a world that’s been anticipating his arrival and fully accepts the hero as vital to the Wakanda civilization.  Boseman isn’t the only actor who shines in this film however, his female costars Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, and Angela Bassett also tear up the screen and take their places as some of the coolest warriors in the Marvel Universe.

None played better, however, than Michael B. Jordan in his role as the villain, Erik Killmonger.  Jordan stole the show and created a perfect antagonist to challenge Boseman for the Wakanda throne.  Black Panther may seem like a side story in the MCU, but it will no doubt play a big role in the upcoming film Infinity War and it furthers the trend of Marvel movies getting better and better.

Black Panther also pulled an incredibly savvy move and employed the illustrious Kendrick Lamar to put together the best movie soundtrack of all time.  The album is one of the best attributes of the film overall, but where it differs from other soundtracks is that it can stand alone without the film and still be musically sound.  It doesn’t play like a traditional movie soundtrack that requires context and visual cues to make it work, each song sounds good in its own right and plays like a rap album.

While Kendrick is feature in nearly every song, the album also features the likes of SZA, Schoolboy Q, 2 Chainz, Khalid, Vince Staples, Ab-Soul, the Weeknd and many more.  Rather than follow the lame tradition of movies creating a single memorable track for their films to make extra cash (think ‘Don’t Stop the Feeling’ for Trolls), Black Panther decided to enlist an army of prominent artists to create a truly good soundtrack that sells regardless of the movie.

In honor of the Oscars and Winter Olympics, take some time to go see Margot Robbie’s new film, I, Tonya.  I, Tonya plays like a documentary about the powerhouse figure skater and bonafide redneck, Tonya Harding’s career and personal life, including her husband’s assault on competitor Nancy Kerrigan weeks before the Olympics.

Margot Robbie has been nominated for the Oscar for best actress for her role in this film and it’s very apparent why.  She embodies everything about Tonya Harding, from her grit, to her deeply conflicting feelings about her abusive relationship and mother, to her hilarious who-gives-a-damn attitude to everything else.

The movie departs from the purely dull and informational story-telling style of other documentaries and bends the rules of story-telling in general with enough fourth-wall breaks to make even Deadpool blush.

In addition to great acting and dialogue, I, Tonya is based off real interviews with the people involved and several direct quotes and real footage of the events sprinkled throughout.  I, Tonya is an excellent film on its own, but if you really want to appreciate the subtleties involved, check out the 30 for 30 about the incident called The Price of Gold.

From the silver screen to the small screen, there’s two big developments in the streaming world this week.  Netflix dropped their newest foray into the Sci-fi genre with Altered Carbon.

Altered Carbon takes place in the distant future where everyone’s consciousness is imprinted onto disks that can be uploaded from body to body, which theoretically can lead to eternal life (for those who can afford it).

The protagonist, Takeshi Kovach, is an incredibly adaptive detective and fighter who’s been “re-sleeved” in a new body 250 years from when he last died to investigate the attempted (and arguably successful) murder of a member of the mega-rich elite class, an assignment he has deep reservations about.

Altered Carbon is like nothing else in Sci-fi right now and is an incredible visual journey into what the future might hold.  On the lighter side of things, Hulu released the fourth season of the greatest show Comedy Central has put out since Chappelle’s Show.  I’m referring of course to Broad City.  Broad City follows the life of New York best friends Abbi and Llana, played by the show’s creators, Abbi Jacobs and Llana Wexler.

Broad City is a side-splitting comedy that is simple enough for first time viewers to pick up four seasons into the show and subtle enough to have several running gags that only die-hard fans can appreciate.  Both shows are sufficiently worthy of destroying your free-time this week.

Meme of the week

I unfortunately can’t look at every meme that dominates the internet every week, so if you see a meme and think it should be the meme of the week please send it to: SumnerCultureCow@gmail.com

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