Movie Reviews
Sinners First Reviews: One of the Best Films of the Year
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
What makes it a must-see movie?
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
How does it look?
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
How is Michael B. Jordan’s dual performance?
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
It’s smart, intuitive work.
— Clarisse Loughrey, Independent
It’s wonderfully nuanced work.
— Liz Shannon Miller, Consequence
Stellar work.
— Karl Delossantos, Smash Cut Reviews
I will freely admit that Jordan playing both twins did get a little confusing.
— Edward Douglas, The Weekend Warrior
Are there any other standouts in the cast?
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
Is this heavier than the usual horror film?
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
How is its take on vampires?
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
How is the music?
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
Are there any problems with the movie?
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
Sinners opens in theaters on April 18, 2025.
Thumbnail image by ©Warner Bros.
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‘4’, the opening track on Richard D James’ (Aphex Twin) self titled 1996 album is a piece of music that beautifully balances the chaotic with the serene, the oppressive and the freeing. It’s a trick that James has pulled off multiple times throughout his career and it is a huge part of what makes him such an iconic and influential artist. Many people have laid the “next Aphex Twin” label on musicians who do things slightly different and when you actually hear their music you realise that, once again, the label is flawed and applied with a lazy attitude. Why mention this? Well, it turns out we’ve been looking for James’ heir apparent in the wrong artform. We’ve so zoned in on music that we’ve not noticed that another Celtic son of Cornwall is rewriting an art form with that highwire balancing act between chaos and beauty. That artist is writer, director and composer Mark Jenkin who over his last two feature films has announced himself as an idiosyncratic voice who is creating his very own language within the world of cinema. Jenkin’s films are often centred around coastal towns or islands and whilst they are experimental or even unsettling, there is always a big heart at the centre of the narrative. A heart that cares about family, tradition, culture, and the pull of ‘home’. Even during the horror of 2022’s brilliant Enys Men you were anchored by the vulnerability and determination of its main protagonist.
This month sees the release of Jenkin’s latest feature film, Rose of Nevada, which is set in a fractured and diminished Cornish coastal town. One day the fishing boat of the film’s title arrives back in harbour after being missing for thirty years. The boat is unoccupied. And frankly that is all the information you are going to get because to discuss any more plot would be unfair on you and disrespectful to Jenkin and the team behind the film. You the viewer should be the one who decides what it is about because thematically there are so many wonderful threads to pull on. This writer’s opinions on what it is about have ranged from a theme of sacrifice for the good of a community to the conflict within when part of you wants to run away from your roots whilst the other half longs to stay and be a lifelong part of its tapestry. Is it about Brexit? Could be. Is it about our own relationships with time and our curation of memory? Could be. Is it about both the positives and negatives of nostalgia? Could be. As a side note, anyone in their mid-40s, like me, who came of age in the 1990s will certainly find moments of warm recognition. Is the film about ghosts and how they haunt families? Could be…I think you get the point.
The elements that make the film so well balanced between chaos and calm are many. It is there in the differing performances between the brilliant two lead actors George MacKay and Callum Turner. It is there in the sound design which fluctuates from being unbearably harsh and metallic, to lulling and warm. It is there in the editing where short, sharp close ups on seemingly unimportant factors are counterbalanced with shots that are held for just that little bit too long. For a film set around the sea, it is apt that it can make you feel like you’re rolling on a stomach churning storm one minute, or a calming low tide the next. Dialogue can be front and centre or blurred and buried under static. One shot is bathed in harsh sunlight whilst the next can be drowned in interior shadows.
Rose of Nevada is Mark Jenkin’s most ambitious film to date yet he has not lost a single iota of innovation, singularity of vision or his gift for telling the most human of stories. It is a film that will tell you different things each time you see it and whilst there are moments that can confuse or beguile, there is so much empathy and love that it can leave you crying tears of emotional understanding. It is chaotic. It is beautiful. It is life……
Rose of Nevada is released on the 24th April.
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Review by Simon Tucker
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‘Hen’ movie review: György Pálfi pecks at Europe’s migrant crisis through the eyes of a chicken
A rogue chicken observes the world around it—and particularly the plight of immigrants in Greece—in Hen, which premiered at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival and is now playing in Prague cinemas (and with English subtitles at Kino Světozor and Edison Filmhub). This story of man through the eyes of an animal immediately recalls Robert Bresson’s Au Hasard Balthazar (and Jerzy Skolimowski’s more recent EO), but director and co-writer György Pálfi (Taxidermia) maintains a bitter, unsentimental approach that lands with unexpected force.
Hen opens with striking scenes inside an industrial poultry facility, where eggs are laid, processed, and shuttled along assembly lines of machinery and human hands in an almost mechanized rhythm of production. From this system emerges our protagonist: a black chick that immediately stands apart from the others, its entry into the world defined not by nature, but by an uncaring food industry.
The titular hen matures quickly within this environment before being loaded onto a truck with the others, presumably destined for slaughter. Because of her black plumage, she is singled out by the driver and rejected from the shipment, only to be told she will instead end up as soup in his wife’s kitchen. During a stop at a gas station, however, she escapes.
What follows is a journey through rural Greece by the sea, including an encounter with a fox, before she eventually finds refuge at a decaying roadside restaurant run by an older man (Yannis Kokiasmenos), his daughter (Maria Diakopanayotou), and her child. Discovered by the family’s dog Titan, she is placed in a coop alongside other chickens.
After finding a mate in the local rooster, she lays eggs that are regularly collected by the man; in one quietly unsettling scene, she watches him crack them open and cook them into an omelet. The hen repeatedly attempts to escape, as we slowly observe the true function of the property: it is being used as a transit point for migrants arriving in Greece by boat, facilitated by local criminal figures.
Like Au Hasard Balthazar and EO, Hen largely resists anthropomorphizing its animal protagonist. The hen behaves as a hen, and the humans treat her accordingly, creating a work that feels unusually grounded and almost documentary in texture. At the same time, Pálfi allows space for the audience to project meaning onto her journey, never fully closing the gap between instinct and interpretation.
There are moments, however, where the film deliberately leans into stylization. A playful montage set to Ravel’s Boléro captures her repeated escape attempts from the coop, while a romantic musical cue underscores her brief pairing with the rooster. These sequences do not break the realism so much as refract it, gently encouraging us to read emotion into behavior that remains, on the surface, purely animal.
One of the film’s central narrative threads is the hen’s search for a safe space to lay her eggs without them being taken away by the restaurant owner. This deceptively simple instinct becomes a powerful thematic mirror for the film’s human subplot involving migrant trafficking. Pálfi draws a stark, often uncomfortable parallel between the treatment of animals as commodities and the treatment of displaced people as disposable bodies moving through a similar system of exploitation.
The film takes an increasingly bleak turn toward its climax as the migrant storyline comes fully into focus, sharpening its allegorical intent. The juxtaposition of animal and human vulnerability becomes more explicit, reinforcing the film’s central critique of systemic indifference and violence. While effective, this escalation feels unusually dark, and our protagonist’s unknowing role feels particularly cruel.
The use of animal actors in Hen is remarkable throughout. The hen—played by eight trained chickens—is seamlessly integrated into the film’s world, with seamless editing (by Réka Lemhényi) and staging so precise that at times it feels almost impossible without digital augmentation. While subtle effects work must assist at certain moments, the result is convincing throughout, including standout sequences involving a fox and a dog.
Zoltán Dévényi and Giorgos Karvelas’ cinematography is also impressive, capturing both the intimacy of the hen’s low vantage point and the broader Greek landscape with striking clarity. The camera’s proximity to the animal world gives the film a distinct visual grammar, grounding its allegory in tactile observation rather than abstraction.
Hen is a challenging but often deeply affecting allegory that extends the tradition of animal-centered cinema while pushing it into harsher political territory. Pálfi’s approach—unsentimental, patient, and often confrontational—ensures the film lingers long after its final images. It is not an easy watch, nor a comfortable one, but it is a strikingly original piece of filmmaking that uses its unusual perspective to cast familiar human horrors in a stark, unsettling new light.
NEW YORK (OSV News) – Many potential brides and grooms-to-be have experienced cold feet in the lead-up to their nuptials. But few can have had their trotters quite so thoroughly chilled as the previously devoted fiance at the center of writer-director Kristoffer Borgli’s provocative psychological study “The Drama” (A24).
Played by Robert Pattinson, British-born, Boston-based museum curator Charlie Thompson begins the film delighted at the prospect of tying the knot with his live-in girlfriend Emma Harwood (Zendaya). But then comes a visit to their caterers where, after much wine has been sampled, the couple wanders down a dangerous conversational path with disastrous results.
Together with their husband-and-wife matron of honor, Rachel (Alana Haim), and best man, Mike (Mamoudou Athie), Charlie and Emma take turns recounting the worst thing they’ve ever done. For Emma, this involves a potential act of profound evil that she planned in her mind but was ultimately dissuaded from carrying out, instead undergoing a kind of conversion.
Emma’s revelation disturbs all three of her companions but leaves Charlie reeling. With only days to go before the wedding, he finds himself forced to reassess his entire relationship with Emma.
As Charlie wavers between loyalty to the person he thought he knew and fear of hitching himself to someone he may never really have understood at all, he’s cast into emotional turmoil. For their part, Rachel and Mike also wrestle with how to react to the situation.
Among other ramifications, Borgli’s screenplay examines the effect of the bombshell on Emma and Charlie’s sexual interaction. So only grown viewers with a high tolerance for such material should accompany the duo through this dark passage in their lives. They’ll likely find the experience insightful but unsettling.
The film contains strong sexual content, including aberrant acts and glimpses of graphic premarital activity, cohabitation, a sequence involving gory physical violence, a narcotics theme, about a half-dozen uses of profanity, a couple of milder oaths, pervasive rough language, numerous crude expressions and obscene gestures. The OSV News classification is L — limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
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