Sinners (2025)

IMDb plot summary: Trying to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brothers return to their hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back.

Directed by Ryan Coogler. Stars Michael B. Jordan, Miles Caton, and Saul Williams.

Sinners is a Ryan Coogler movie starring Michael B. Jordan as twins who return to their hometown to set up a juke joint, but things start going wrong when some unexpected visitors show up, looking to shake up the brothers' venture. I think it's pretty well out there what the primary villain is in this movie, but the film itself does not reveal that until a good portion of the way through, so I'm going to follow its lead and be a little cagey about what exactly the horror part of the story is. This is a really engaging story, though. It does what I really love horror movies to do, where it takes hypothetical abstract monsters in the night and blends them with very real world fears in this case the not-at-all hypothetical opposition that this black family faces in the South just trying to live their lives. Pairing these two together makes for a really dynamic and engaging thriller. Of course, no review of this movie would be complete without mention of the music. There have been heated debates on social media about whether or not this counts as a musical, and while I think mostly reveals that people's definition of musical is too small, I think it counts solely because the storytelling and the narrative pause to let the music take center stage multiple times. We get full musical numbers where the visuals are there to enhance the music, rather than the other why around. That's exactly what I love about musicals, and that's what this does very well. This is a pretty busy movie -- there's enough going on in the background of the story that I think it would absolutely benefit from a second watch. I know there are things that I did not connect with the first time around that would pop out to me afterwards. Really a great film though.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Sinners (2025)

📊 Ranked #305/4016 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 92

beat Meet John Doe (#2005 → #2001)

beat Blackbeard's Ghost (held at #1000)

beat Breakfast at Tiffany's (#490 → #492)

lost to Your Name. (#249 → #248)

beat The Edge of Seventeen (#375 → #412)

beat Liar Liar (#284 → #286)

lost to Requiem for a Dream (held at #280)

beat Operation Petticoat (#296 → #302)

lost to Shaun of the Dead (#288 → #289)

lost to Life of Brian (#292 → #291)

lost to The Guilty (held at #293)

beat Sabrina (held at #295)