After spending most of his career on the Creed and Black Panther franchises, filmmaker Ryan Coogler delivers his most original work yet with the vampire flick Sinners. According to the first reviews of the movie, it’s not only his best, but one of the best releases of the year so far. The highlights are Michael B. Jordan’s dual performance as twin brothers, the ambitious mix of genres and ideas, and the inventive use of music in the film.
Here’s what critics are saying about Sinners:
Is it one of the best movies of the year so far?
Sinners is a masterclass in filmmaking. — Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky
It’s one of the best films of the year. — Matt Neglia, Next Best Picture
The best movie I’ve seen in 2025 so far. — Matt Singer, ScreenCrush
One of the most devilishly entertaining movies of the year. — Karl Delossantos, Smash Cut Reviews
Sinners is a bloody, brilliant motion picture. — William Bibbiani, The Wrap
I’m already prepared to hail Sinners as the movie of the year from this point onwards. — Jeremy Mathai, Slashfilm
I can’t remember the last time I had this much fun, nor felt so reinvigorated by, a major studio genre movie. — Alistair Ryder, The Film Stage
Sinners perfectly blends multiple genres to create a movie like you have never seen before. — Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky
It works surprisingly well… due to Coogler’s very specific vision and his ability to deliver on it. — Edward Douglas, The Weekend Warrior
The most impressive feat director-writer Ryan Coogler achieves is finding a balance between genre and meaning—and one begets the other. — Karl Delossantos, Smash Cut Reviews
What sets Sinners apart is its thematic depth. The film’s exploration of duality is masterfully layered. — Emmanuel Noisette, The Movie Blog
Everything about Sinners is excellent, but where it fully shines is in its story, expertly brought to life by Coogler. — Britany Murphy, Muses of Media
Sinners is the rare film that possesses you body and soul. — Lyvie Scott, Inverse
We simply don’t get original blockbusters with this level of passion and on this scale anymore, at least outside of a Christopher Nolan or M. Night Shyamalan production. — Jeremy Mathai, Slashfilm
Is it reminiscent of any other films?
In some ways, this is a black version of Robert Rodriguez’s ’90s head trip From Dusk Till Dawn. — Peter Bradshaw, Guardian
Sinners gives Coogler an opportunity to delve further into genre along the lines of Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, but more films like Desperado, Machete, and their Grindhouse entries, than their vampire collab, From Dusk Till Dawn. — Edward Douglas, The Weekend Warrior
Obvious comparisons will likely be drawn to From Dusk Till Dawn. But unlike that 1996 Robert Rodriguez-Quentin Tarantino joint, Sinners isn’t winking at the audience from behind grotesque violence and droll B-movie tropes. — David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
Sinners has films like John Carpenter’s The Thing in mind as well. — Aaron Neuwirth, We Live Entertainment
I won’t be surprised if the first wave of critical reactions are similar to those which greeted Us, aiming to interpret the film as chasing a singular metaphor when it’s a messier beast with far more on its mind. — Alistair Ryder, The Film Stage
How does it compare to Ryan Coogler’s other movies?
Ryan Coogler may have just given us his magnum opus… perhaps his masterpiece. — Karl Delossantos, Smash Cut Reviews
This could be one of Ryan Coogler’s best films to date. — Emmanuel Noisette, The Movie Blog
His new work, Sinners, feels like a filmmaker liberated. — Kambole Campbell, Little White Lies
Sinners is Coogler utterly unleashed… He’s unshackled from the comfort of IP or franchise fare. — Lyvie Scott, Inverse
It’s his most impassioned, spiritually resonant work to date. — Matt Neglia, Next Best Picture
Coogler solidifies himself as one of the best working today. — Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky
With Sinners, he ascends to the next level. — Courtney Howard, Fresh Fiction
How is the action?
Sinners leads to a number of incredibly satisfying action set pieces, one that could garner audience reactions akin to Hitler’s assassination in Inglourious Basterds. — Edward Douglas, The Weekend Warrior
[It has] tight action sequences that keep you emotionally and physically engaged. — Emmanuel Noisette, The Movie Blog
Its action is explosive. — Siddhant Adlakha, Polygon
It’s a rip-roaring thrill ride. — Jeremy Mathai, Slashfilm
Autumn Durald Arkapaw’s cinematography lends the carnage a strange elegance. — Clarisse Loughrey, Independent
The movie is exquisitely shot, with Autumn Durald Arkapaw’s cinematography immersing us in the sunlit splendor and leafy ominousness of back-country Mississippi. — Owen Gleiberman, Variety
Once again, Arkapaw ignites the screen with her beautiful shots, giving viewers more than just the performances and music to get lost in. — Britany Murphy, Muses of Media
From an aesthetic standpoint, the film is incredibly self-assured — much of which is owed to cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw and her use of celluloid contrast. It has the deepest shadows you’ve ever seen during daylight, injecting each scene with a sense of mystery. — Siddhant Adlakha, Polygon
The cinematography is exceptional, filled with bold compositions. — Emmanuel Noisette, The Movie Blog
Does it do a good job of immersing the audience in its setting?
Coogler takes his time building out the world of Clarksdale, Mississippi, poring over the sights and sounds of the Jim Crow South… It crucially clues us in to who the Smokestack twins are, where they come from, and what they’re fighting for. — Lyvie Scott, Inverse
The world-building, while a slow burn, is immersive and detailed in a way that is so enjoyable to explore. — Karl Delossantos, Smash Cut Reviews
To no one’s surprise, Michael B. Jordan is incredible in this movie. He does a wonderful job of creating two very different characters for the twins. — Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky
Michael B. Jordan’s performance in Sinners, particularly his portrayal of the enigmatic SmokeStack twins, is a standout in his career. — Britany Murphy, Muses of Media
A career-best performance. — Matt Neglia, Next Best Picture
Delroy Lindo has a standout moment in a deeply emotional monologue that quietly steals the spotlight. — Emmanuel Noisette, The Movie Blog
Lindo steals the show as Slim — but Caton’s Sammie is the true one to watch. — Lyvie Scott, Inverse
The real star of the film is 20-year-old Miles Caton. — Liz Shannon Miller, Consequence
The real standout is Miles Caton, who is shockingly delivering his debut performance here as Sammie. — Matt Neglia, Next Best Picture
Viewers are sure to be drawn in by newcomer Miles Caton as well. I was shocked to learn that this is his first feature film, as he holds his own in scenes with powerhouse actors. — Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky
The real standout is Nigerian British actress Mosaku. — David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
The entire ensemble assembled goes above and beyond to prove Coogler to very much be an actor’s director, getting top-notch performances. — Edward Douglas, The Weekend Warrior
It’s the rare studio production that engages your intellect while it scares you senseless. — Matt Singer, ScreenCrush
Sinners is the rare mainstream horror film that’s about something weighty and soulful: the wages of sin in Black America. — Owen Gleiberman, Variety
Yes, it’s a vampire film, but it’s also got a lot more on its mind. Coogler uses the conceits of the genre to craft a haunting allegory about the virtues we inherit and the vices that fester in the dark. — Lyvie Scott, Inverse
The result is a horror film that feels deeply cultural, resonant, and original, using the lens of music and ancestral trauma to reframe the vampire mythos into something hauntingly personal. — Emmanuel Noisette, The Movie Blog
It boasts a powerful message about society and how people can drag others down while offering up a terrifying vampire story. — Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky
While Sinners never makes light of the history of the South, it’s not at the cost of the fun that can be had with this crossover between blues players, drinkers, and vampires. — Kambole Campbell, Little White Lies
Coogler doesn’t reinvent the vampire movie with Sinners, but in a current era of American cinema where messages are force-fed, a thoughtful social satire which gives viewers time to dissect––and never lets its loftier thematic aims get in the way of its junky thrills––is a breath of fresh air. — Alistair Ryder, The Film Stage
Ryan Coogler has made a sexy and sweaty vampire flick unlike any other. — Edward Douglas, The Weekend Warrior
The vampire design? Subtle, creepy, and just different enough to give Sinners its own unique place in the genre. — Emmanuel Noisette, The Movie Blog
It’s remarkable that Coogler has found a fresh angle on the tropes here. There’s a little bit of “the same but different” when it comes to the creature design. — Liz Shannon Miller, Consequence
Coogler shows as much interest in the metaphorical potential of the vampire as Robert Eggers did with Nosferatu earlier this year. — Clarisse Loughrey, Independent
The film’s visual idea of the vampire is simple but fun, mostly normal in appearance other than an uncanny glint of light in their dark eyes – using this subtlety to stoke paranoia in the increasingly confined sawmill. — Kambole Campbell, Little White Lies
Is there too much going on?
There’s a lot going on here… As much arthouse as grindhouse, it’s a blood-drenched mix tape that shouldn’t work. But it does. — David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
The two halves sound strikingly different, but it never feels like a completely bifurcated film: you can’t have one without the other. — Kambole Campbell, Little White Lies
The film is inevitably too much at times, and not always in full command of its many competing flavors, but that too muchness is also the greatest strength of a visionary studio product that sticks its fangs deep into an eternal struggle: how to assimilate without losing your soul. — David Ehrlich, IndieWire
The eventual turn to its riotous second half is underlined by a typically inventive soundtrack from Ludwig Göransson. — Kambole Campbell, Little White Lies
Composer Ludwig Göransson provides a sonic backdrop unlike any other. — Lyvie Scott, Inverse
An even more important aspect of Sinners than vampires is its music… I expect this to be another hot and popular soundtrack. — Edward Douglas, The Weekend Warrior
Music is as integral to Sinners as its bloodsuckers… It’s blues music that is the film’s lifeblood. — Clarisse Loughrey, Independent
The music in Sinners is not just a background element, but a character in its own right, shaping the narrative and the characters’ experiences. — Britany Murphy, Muses of Media
The film celebrates the power of music — its ability to transcend time, connect generations, and carry the weight of grief and joy alike, making it almost its own character in the film. Academy Award-winner Ludwig Göransson’s score is one of his best. — Matt Neglia, Next Best Picture
For many, the movie could as well do without the supernatural element, and I admit I’m one of them. — Peter Bradshaw, Guardian
The movie does feel like it goes on for a little too long, even with a pretty satisfying ending that appropriately ties up a few loose ends. — Edward Douglas, The Weekend Warrior
If Sinners had one flaw, it could be in its pacing. — Lyvie Scott, Inverse
The only real drawback is the pacing. — Emmanuel Noisette, The Movie Blog
There are some oddities in a bold swing like Sinners, such as not one but two post-credit scenes that feel unnecessary, and the aforementioned pacing of the first half may lose some viewers before Coogler sinks his fangs deeper into the material. — Matt Neglia, Next Best Picture
If the ending drags on somewhat indulgently (including both a mid- and post-credits scene, amazingly), well, Coogler more than earns the right. — Jeremy Mathai, Slashfilm
Un Paarvayil Movie Synopsis: When her twin sister dies under mysterious circumstances, Bhavya goes on a hunt to find the murderer, but the fight isn’t easy as she loses her vision.Un Paarvayil Movie Review: The opening sequence of Un Paarvayil reminds one of a few finely written scenes from films about twins like Charulatha (2012) or Thadam (2019) where we learn about their special bond. In Un Paarvayil, Bhavya (played by Parvati Nair) gets on stage to receive the Best Business Woman award. Parallely, her twin, Dhivya (also played by Parvati Nair), is stuck in a dangerous situation. As the latter faces difficulty, Bhavya, who is on stage, also feels like she is being choked and struggles to breathe – an instant telepathy of sorts that suggests her sister is in danger. Without a lot of words or too many scenes, this one sequence conveys the bond between the sisters Bhavya and Dhivya. However, this narrative creativity is never seen on screen again throughout the film’s run time.Everything about Un Paarvayil is right on paper. With a textbook formula, Un Paarvayil has the right recipe for a psycho thriller – a scary bungalow, a loving but mysterious husband, and a psycho killer. But that’s about it. The stage is set, writing is done, and actors deliver the dialogues, but these don’t come together cohesively. In most scenes, the dialogue delivery is bland, and the writing becomes increasingly predictable. For instance, Bhavya is informed very early on in the film that Dhivya has a best friend with whom she shares all her secrets. However, the writing is so contrived that until the last moment, Bhavya never thinks about reaching out to this friend to learn more about her sister. It’s as though Bhavya forgot that piece of the puzzle.Which is why it feels like the film suffers from progressive amnesia. For instance, at one point, it looks like the cops give lethargic explanations for a murder, but we are not sure if they are just lethargic or are partners-in-crime with the psycho killer. And we keep wondering – but we never get to know that because the film has forgotten such a sequence existed. Likewise, Bhavya learns about an important CCTV evidence and pursues it. Still, before she uncovers the truth, she begins to track down another clue, and the CCTV evidence is never mentioned again. Remember how we see the twins share a unique connection in the opening sequence? It is also depicted only once and gets forgotten. Just like this, the film keeps jumping from one sequence to another, with all the old clues left behind and forgotten, before another new clue randomly reaches Bhavya. So, the next time we find a missing puzzle, we are no longer curious about it.That said, the film did have some interesting scenes. Whenever the psycho killer is on screen, the tension rises, and we are hooked to what’s next – but such sequences are very few. By the book, it might look like the film has a perfect premise, and some really good performances from Parvati Nair and Mahendran do make things intriguing, but the film turns a blind eye to its basic cinematography and contrived writing, leaving us in the dark for the most part.
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Warning: Full spoilers for the film follow.
I am a sucker for a good ape movie. I’ve been obsessed with Planet of the Apes for literally decades, and I continue to find apes both fascinating and more than slightly terrifying, particularly chimps. Of course, the news has been filled with stories of pet chimps (and their own owners) going amuck, as the recent series Chimp Crazy makes clear. Indeed chimps in particular are eternally coming up in our popular culture. In addition to Planet of the Apes, Jordan Peele’s Nope featured a chimp attack as a key part of its story, suggesting that our dear simian relatives are an enduring source of fear and fascination for us. They seem so understandable and yet so utterly alien, and what better way to make sense of, or at least experience, this contradiction through the vernacular of horror?
This brings us to Primate, the new slasher film from director Johannes Roberts (who co-wrote the script with Ernest Riera). Arguably the emotional center of the story is Lucy (Johnny Sequoyah), who returns home to her family’s isolated cliffside mansion in Hawaii, where she’s reunited with her father, sister, and the family’s friendly chimp companion Ben, along with some other equally bland personalities. It soon turns out that poor Ben has been infected with rabies and, sans treatment, he soon goes on a rampage, quickly turning from cuddly and affectionate to sadistic and murderous. It’s all Lucy and her sister and the rest of the gang can do to stay alive (spoiler alert: almost none of them make it out alive).
Primate is undeniably gripping. Roberts is a skilled visual stylist, and he has a keen command of space, lighting, and sound. A number of wide shots show us just how isolated the family home is from anywhere around, situated on a bluff that offers no easy escape once Ben becomes murderous, while dim lighting effectively creates a nightmare landscape from one which our protagonists cannot escape. Of equal note is an unsettling scene in which Ben presses his face up against some distorting glass, creating a nightmarish image that will stick with you as his murderous rage grows. Even props have their part to play, from the speech device that Ben uses to convey his feelings–which becomes ironic later in the film–to a broken chair that becomes key to his demise. Adrian Johnston’s soundtrack, likewise, helps to keep your nerves constantly jangled as you wait for the next bout of slaughter to unfold, and I appreciated a scene in which Lucy’s deaf father, played by Troy Kotsur, returns home, even as the film muffles sounds so we inhabit his deafness. The juxtaposition of silence with Ben’s renewed attacks on Lucy is quite effective.
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In my opinion, every horror movie worth its salt has one kill that’s both exceptionally gnarly and also deeply disturbing, and in this regard Primate does not disappoint. The unfortunate victim in this case is Drew, one of the dude-bros from the airplane that Lucy and her friends meet right at the beginning who, upon encountering Ben in the bedroom, has his jaw ripped right off. There’s something almost poignant about the way his eyes continue to dart around, filled with an anguished knowledge that death is imminent as he chokes on his own blood. It’s also bleakly funny, as Ben, seeming to sense his victim’s dismay and to find humor in it, uses the detached jaw to mock his anguished gurgling and then, as if that weren’t enough, almost seeming to try to reattach the torn-off jaw (the resulting sound of teeth clacking against bone is viscerally unsettling). It’s a brilliantly-executed piece of horror cinema and this scene alone was worth the price of admission, though I did find myself wishing we had more scenes like this, as perverse as that sounds.
As other critics have noted, the script is at times a bit too lean, particularly when it comes to giving these characters or even providing much insight into Ben as a character prior to his infection. It’s not that this is necessarily a requirement, but as a fan of both chimps and Planet of the Apes, I kept hoping for at least some gesture toward helping us to feel the barest bit of sympathy for Ben, a creature brought into the human world and then turned into a monster by a force he has no control over. Fortunately, there are at least a few moments when we see the anguish he’s in, and there are even some signs he knows something is wrong, even if he can’t quite comprehend why he’s now filled with such murderous rage.
When it comes down to it, there’s just something uniquely terrifying and appealing about chimps, which helps to explain why we keep returning to them again and again in popular culture. As one of our closest living relatives–and as some of the most intelligent nonhuman animals–they hover in a strange liminal space, both eerily like and unlike us. This is particularly true in a film like Primate, which relies on practical effects and puppetry rather than CGI (except for some moments). Miguel Torres Umba does a fantastic job inhabiting Ben, and the practical effects may not make Ben into as realistic an ape as, say, Caesar from Planet of the Apes, but he’s definitely more terrifying. For all that he’s a killing machine, there are glimmers of a not-quite-human intelligence lurking behind those eyes, which is precisely what makes him such a dangerous enemy once the rabies-induced madness starts to take over.
And that, ultimately, is the irony of Ben going mad. As the tragic case of Charla Nash made clear back in 2009, even the tamest and most human-acculturated chimps are only one mild disturbance or moment from tearing a person apart. Even though the film doesn’t go too deeply into Ben’s backstory, there’s enough there to glean that he was, for all intents and purposes, raised as a human, and there are just enough glimpses of who he was to make us feel the pangs of sympathy for this creature forced to live in a human world for which is so manifestly ill-suited. Just like Travis, he’s a bit of the untamed wild just waiting to destroy the fragile human family and the civilization built atop it.
Primate is one of those genre-horror flicks that wears its influences on its sleeve, and one can see strands of everything from Cujo to “The Murders of the Rue Morgue”in its plot, themes, and execution. Its success owes much to Roberts’ skills as a filmmaker, his ability to take tried and true elements of the genre and use them in ways that hold us rapt and make us grip the arms of our chairs in terror. This film burrows deep in your brain and doesn’t let go, and I can’t wait to see what Roberts has in store for us next.
Park Chan-wook’s “mordantly hilarious” new comedy “skewers capitalism with much of the same wit, sadness, and slapstick buffoonery that made Parasite so resonant,” said David Ehrlich in IndieWire. Squid Game villain Lee Byung-hun stars as a laid-off paper company veteran who’s so desperate to preserve his family’s upper-middle-class existence that he schemes to murder the other contenders for his potential bounce-back job. “Plotted with ornate precision but unfolding with the panic of a desperate man,” the latest Korean-language feature from the director of Oldboy and The Handmaiden is “a slaphappy movie with a surprisingly powerful sting.” Because Lee’s character is such an incompetent killer, No Other Choice “plays like a vicious episode of Looney Tunes,” said Brian Tallerico in RogerEbert.com.
At the same time, “Lee is at his career-best here, deftly walking a tightrope of likability, relatability, and morbid humor” as this brilliantly shot film gradually transforms from “almost silly” to something far darker. Still, despite its fierce anti-capitalist message, the movie remains “an amusing caper, not a stern lecture,” said Kyle Smith in The Wall Street Journal. Though it’s “easily half an hour too long,” fattened by “irrelevant asides and digressions,” it “isn’t particularly heavy-handed in its disdain for corporations.” Instead, it’s “a sly slay-fest, with an appropriately mordant ending,” one that will unnerve anyone who’s fearful of what AI and automation will do to the jobs that provide so many of us with our sense of worth and identity.
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‘Dead Man’s Wire’
Directed by Gus Van Sant (R)
★★★
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Gus Van Sant’s first feature in seven years has “the breezily watchable feel” of a movie you might catch on Sunday-afternoon cable TV, said Marshall Shaffer in The Playlist. “A well-oiled machine,” Dead Man’s Wire dramatizes a real-life 1977 incident in which an Indianapolis mortgage broker was held hostage by a man named Tony Kiritsis who believed the company had sabotaged his attempt to finally make a few bucks. Portrayed here as “both bumbling and brilliant,” Kiritsis won his bid to air his grievances on national TV, all while keeping a shotgun wired to his captive’s neck in a way that ensured instant death if anyone intervened.
A “crackling” lead performance by Bill Skarsgard carries this small-scale thriller, said David Rooney in The Hollywood Reporter. But Colman Domingo also shines as a “magnetically cool” DJ whose effort to defuse the crisis helps turn the standoff into a three-day national story. Van Sant, whose commercial breakthrough came with 1995’s To Die For, is “in his element conducting the media circus and the brainstorming of local cops and FBI,” turning Dead Man’s Wire into “a timely, entertaining reflection on the way the offer of the American dream often tends to be snatched back.” It’s troubling, though, that the movie fudges some facts about the case to fit the director’s populist vision, said Owen Gleiberman in Variety. Dead Man’s Wire is clearly “Van Sant’s most vital piece of work for the big screen in some time,” but there’s no evidence that the mortgage company snookered Kiritsis, and pretending it did unfairly alters the drama we’re shown.
‘Father Mother Sister Brother’
Directed by Jim Jarmusch (R)
★★★
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“Jim Jarmusch’s Father Mother Sister Brother finds the director in a minor key, which is sometimes his best key,” said Bilge Ebiri in NYMag.com. Like such Jarmusch “masterpieces” as 1984’s Stranger Than Paradise and 2016’s Paterson, this Venice film festival award winner mines the mundane for humor and emotional effect. Even so, “it’s much more stripped down and oblique,” a quiet triptych in which each of the parts is a snapshot of a “disarmingly spare” family get-together. The movie is “funniest at the start,” said Nick Schager in The Daily Beast, as Adam Driver, Mayim Bialik, and Tom Waits co-star in a chapter about two adult siblings who during a rare visit with their semi-reclusive and untrustworthy father engage in “the sort of small talk that strains to fill a vacuum.”
The second part then dials up the despondent mood, as sisters portrayed by Cate Blanchett and Vicky Krieps visit the Dublin home of their prim novelist mom, played by Charlotte Rampling. Unfortunately, Jarmusch “leans heavily into wistfulness” in the third segment, in which Indya Moore and Luka Sabbat play adult twins visiting the Paris apartment of their recently deceased parents. Here, “the overtly melancholy tone is more than the wispy action can shoulder.” For me, that third segment and the first are “the most convincing as portraits of real life,” said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian. Still, throughout this “deeply pleasing” film, you wait in vain for a crisis or confrontation to arrive and instead experience only “contentment and calm,” a Zen-like acceptance of life’s chance relationships that serves as “a cleansing of the moviegoing palate.”
