BLACK PANTHER
PG-13, 134 minutes. Opens Friday at Niantic. Opens Thursday at Mystic Luxury Cinemas, Stonington, Waterford, Westbrook, Lisbon. Believe the hype: “Black Panther” is easily Marvel’s best film to date. This exhilarating, beautiful and genuinely moving superhero film is firmly rooted in the point of view of director and co-writer Ryan Coogler, a tremendous example of the radical possibilities to be found in Afrofuturism. Coogler builds a thrilling, exciting world, and threads throughout it a story filled with pathos and real-world gravitas. Although our hero, T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman), hails from the African country of Wakanda — a technological wonder powered by the natural resource vibranium — “Black Panther” is Coogler through and through, with a storyline that originates on the streets of Oakland, Calif. The conflict of the film lies in the gulf between the experiences of the Wakandans, who have been shielded from the world’s inequalities, and those who have been colonized, enslaved and oppressed. T’Challa, who becomes king of Wakanda at the beginning of the film, has to decide how he’s going to position Wakanda to aid in the liberation of black people throughout the world while also protecting his country. He may be the king, but Boseman very classily allows himself to be upstaged nearly every minute of “Black Panther” by the women of Wakanda. He’s flanked by the luminous Lupita Nyong’o as Nakia, a Wakandan spy and his love interest, as well as the warrior Okoye, the stunning, righteous and ferocious Danai Gurira, who just about walks away with the whole movie. His mother, Ramonda, is played by the inimitable Angela Bassett, and two newcomers also shine: Letitia Wright as T’Challa’s spunky sister, Shuri, and Winston Duke as M’Baku, a rival tribe leader who challenges him for the throne. — Katie Walsh, Tribune Content Agency
EARLY MAN
1/2 PG-13, 89 minutes. Opens Friday at Niantic. Opens Thursday at Mystic Luxury Cinemas, Stonington, Waterford, Westbrook, Lisbon. Aardman Animations star Nick Park, the brilliant mind behind the adventures of “Wallace and Gromit,” tries to outdo the Flintstones in his latest comedy, “Early Man.” The film — set at the exact moment the Stone and Bronze Ages collide — milks humor out of primordial playfulness and primitive puns. On that level it scores big, but the film slightly misses the goal when it comes to the kind of humanity Park has presented over the years through “Wallace and Gromit” offerings.It’s only a minor miss, leaving the movie overall one of the most delightful tales of men in animal pelts in recent film and TV history. It all starts a few minutes after the dawn of time, when a handful of cave people have found a sanctuary in a lush valley surrounded by a no man’s land MATT KENNEDY/MARVEL STUDIOS-DISNEY where giant killer ducks roam. They live a simple life of sleeping, hunting rabbits and sleeping some more. The only member of their group who shows any initiative is Dug (voiced by Eddie Redmayne), who wants the cavemen and cavewomen to think in bigger terms. That plan is put on hold when Lord Nooth (Tom Hiddleston) sends his more civilized followers into the valley to start mining the bronze Nooth has used to become fabulously rich. Nooth’s world is so advanced they have metal weapons, wheels and soccer (it’s actually known as football by the Bronze Age denizens, but calling the sport that would create all sorts of confusion). The only way Dug and his beastly sidekick Hognob can save the valley is for his group to defeat Nooth’s super talented team in a winner-take-all soccer match. The only hitch in the plan is while early, early, early, early man played a form of soccer, the latest generation wouldn’t know a goal from a gull. Their only hope comes in the form of Goona (Maisie Williams), a young girl from Nooth’s world who has been denied the right to show off her sports skills because of gender bias. — Rick Bentley, Tribune Content Agency
MUDBOUND
R, 134 minutes. 3 p.m. Sat. at Garde. Two men return home from World War II to work on a farm in rural Mississippi, where they struggle to deal with racism and adjusting to life after war. The movie stars Oscar nominee Mary J. Blige, along with Garrett Hedlund, Jonathan Banks and Carey Mulligan.