Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” is at the crux of movie discourse this week, with its 98% Rotten Tomatoes score (the second-highest of 2025), its original concept, and its dramatic sense of style and flair. And it should be.
“Sinners” is great. It’s a Southern Gothic horror adventure about a pair of twin brothers (Michael B. Jordan) navigating a vampire infestation in their hometown, set in the Jim Crow-era Deep South. It’s tightly paced, gorgeous to look at, and has tremendous sequences with unbelievable music intertwined. People are already claiming it as the best vampire movie… ever. It’s everything you want in a trip to the movies.
And that’s the point. Ryan Coogler (“Creed,” “Black Panther”) wants his audience well fed.
“I want people walking out of the theater and thinking, ‘Man, I had a full meal. They really care about the medium,’” Coogler said during his press tour. “Everybody on the project knew that this was going to theaters. They all care about seeing movies on a big screen and what it feels like when you see a good one.”
The problem is that these experiences are becoming fewer and fewer. And with enough tempting entertainment options available from the comfort of your couch at a fraction of the price, it’s no wonder these experiences are going extinct. Maybe they need to come with Michelin stars to let people know how far a journey from their couch the movie is worth. Sinners gets a full three Michelin stars.
“Sinners,” currently tracking to have the biggest opening for an original film post-COVID-19, is in theaters Friday.
Here’s what else is available to watch this weekend.
What & How to Watch
On Amazon Prime: “Eephus”
The only film to have a higher Rotten Tomatoes score than “Sinners” this calendar year, “Eephus” is a perfect pairing with the optimism that comes with April baseball.
Set in New England in the 1990s, two teams from an amateur baseball league made up of middle-aged guys decide to face off one more time before their beloved, downtrodden field gets bulldozed over.
It’s a character study wrapped in a comedy that turns into a nice bookend to “The Sandlot.” The language is coarser and the drama comes with more baggage, but “Eephus” delivers the best baseball movie since “Moneyball.”
On Netflix: “Black Mirror”
Fourteen years and six seasons later, we have arrived at this current iteration of “Black Mirror,” a science fiction anthology that explores the dangers of technology (among other things) through endless creativity and concepts.
For all the attempts to bring back “The Twilight Zone” or something similar, nothing has come close to the success of “Black Mirror,” even if it is more cynical and biting in its approach to our modern world.
It may be too abstract in its approach, and too close to home when it creates a culture burrowing itself into dystopia, but it also can be one of the most unique TV experiences available.
As a die-hard Paul Giamatti fan, I found his episode (“Eulogy’) incredibly moving.
On Amazon Prime: “Conclave”
Amazon just snagged “Conclave” for streaming, giving the 2024 conversational thriller about the transition, and traditions, of replacing the pope its biggest audience yet.
For a couple of weeks, it honestly felt like “Conclave” could steal the Oscar for Best Picture last March. Featuring Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, and Isabella Rossellini, it’s a sharp, well-acted, beautifully rendered drama worthy of its acclaim.
Except for its ending. And this is why any holdouts should cave and check out this movie this weekend. Does the ending work for you? Is it too bizarre and unrealistic? Does it throw off the balance of the film? Does it not impact your viewing of the movie at all? Check it out and fire off your thoughts because it is quite a choice from director Edward Berger (“All Quiet on the Western Front”).
Follow Frank Sumrall on X. Send news tips here.
