Sinners (2025)

Director: Ryan Coogler

Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, Miles Caton, Jack O’Connell

Have I Seen it Before: No.

Did I Like It: A review like this is more than a bit daunting. I love the movie so much that I get the distinct sense that I’ll be chewing* on parts of the movie for years to come. A simple review won’t be able to hold everything I want to say about it. An episode of <Beyond the Cabin in the Woods> won’t be able to cover everything I want to say about it.

Ryan Coogler hasn’t missed yet, and shows no signs of stopping now. He made a seventh movie in the Rocky franchise into something not just watchable, but essential. His biggest hit Black Panther (2018 demanded a sequel. Fate took away his star, which would spell disaster for lesser mortals, and he turned the whole affair into a meditation on grief at a time when big budget fair is positively allergic to anything resemble a theme.

Here, Coogler has made what is quite possibly the best vampire movie ever made. By equal turns startling, dread-inducing, and sexy**. His cast is perfect. One could make a case for Jordan being the MVP here, playing two roles, having them both be distinct characters, and managing to have chemistry with himself. But don’t turn on either Caton or O’Connell. Caton is either a born blues musician who also has tremendous screen presence, or one of the authentic screen acting finds of this century who can also play the blues like you wouldn’t imagine. O’Connell would be forgiven for playing a typical vampire villain role, but even he too has charisma and pathos (and not none musical talent) so that it is impossible to find the weak link in the chain. Not that I’m of a mind to go looking that hard.

This is about the length of a typical review, and there’s so much more I want to go into. The spiritual implications. The depiction of cultural appropriation. The sexiness, again***. But you know what? The review may never be able to contain it all. Come find me and talk to me about, I’m sure I’d love to chat.

*Pun accepted, if not entirely intended.

**To my mind, this might be the most pro-cunnilingus film since—no judgments—Gigli (2003).

***Really, it may be one of the sexiest films ever made, and that’s before the vampires show up and start to ruin everyone’s good time.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)

Director: Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson

Cast: Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Brian Tyree Henry, Luna Lauren Vélez

Have I Seen it Before: Nope!

Did I Like It: These movies are making me feel quite foolish.

Years ago, when Sony announced that they were bringing their admittedly haphazard skills to an animated Spider-Man movie focusing Miles Morales (Moore), I was skeptical. Morales is a big part of the comics, but a pretty deep cut for the larger audience. Additionally, Sony Animation had appeared to go out of their way to avoid tapping into a breakthrough hit, unless one counted Hotel Transylvania (2012)—which I wouldn’t—or Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009–which I probably should, as Lord and Miller were also involved in that case.

Boy, was I wrong.

The original Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)* is so good that the live-action Spider-movies have become tame (if still enjoyable) by comparison, to the point where Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) had to reach for a bit of the—pun not intended, but resigned to—multiversal madness.

So, when the sequel came around, I was pretty sure I had it all figured out. The LEGO Movie (2014) was resplendent, but The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part (2019) was merely a passable animated film, and once again, Lord and Miller were involved there. There is no way that more time with Miles and company would measure up.

Boy, was I wrong.

Everything that was great about the first film here is expanded and made all the more poignant here. While multiple universes are performing a delicate dance/traffic jam around this movie, the theme of Miles and Gwen (Steinfeld) ongoing uncertainty about where they belong goes beyond the meet-cute of the first film. The film is just as, if not funnier than its predecessor, which is no small feat, as I could have easily been turned off by the fact that Spider-Ham and Spider-Man Noir—easily the two most demonstrably funny characters from the first film—are relegated to a silent cameo in the film’s final moments. Some might be turned off by the cliffhanger here, but I imagine anyone complaining about that at this point will be mollified when the entire picture of the trilogy is complete.

But next year’s Beyond the Spider-Verse couldn’t possibly be any good, right? How many trilogy cappers are truly satisfying?

*How could that have been nearly five years ago? Why is time becoming increasingly wild, with certain years flying by in a snap, and other years feeling like they are a decade long? Don’t answer that, I think I may know the answer.