BLACK PANTHER

PG-13, 134 minutes. Niantic, 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