Storytelling in Star Wars (1977)

Today people is what this blog, and ALL blogs, are actually for - I had a random thought in my head that the whole world needs to know about.

I have dabbled in writing, published nothing, but I have a few novels under my belt and I'm working on a new one that has really deep world and lore, but to make the story actually good, I wanted to take what I call the Star Wars (1977) approach.

See, the interesting thing about the original Star Wars is that it's a complex galactic war, but you only ever get exposed to it through the eyes of Luke Skywalker. You never really see anything that he doesn't see. You're just following him throughout the whole story, learning as he learns, and it makes for a remarkably tight narrative. The only narrative bit without him is the inciting incident, which happens immediately as Vader boards the Tantive IV looking for the stolen Death Star datatapes (sure, there are bits that don't feature Luke like Han talking to the Imperials over the intercom, some of Obi-Wan's fight with Darth and sneaking around the Death Star, but none of these have narrative importance to the story the movie is telling).

It wasn't until I was crafting my own work that I realized how gnarly it is that they pulled this off without the use of a ton of long exposition scenes. You get a bit with Obi-Wan both in his hut and on the Falcon, but it's such a simple story that you can get it and then hop on Luke's journey. This both opened up Andor to show a lot more of the nuance and grays within the black and white journey (and on a meta level, it totally ruins Star Wars because all the sacrifice of dozens of rebels in a real fight and spy game doesn't matter as much as this hick farmboy flying in and blowing it up and getting a medal. Where's Kleya's medal?!).

For nearly fifty years I also believe that people misunderstood this style, because it only works if the storytelling conventions are still solid. You don't necessarily need backstory, but you do need motivation. When you look at The Force Awakens (2015), it falls apart because we don't have backstory or motivation. JJ Abrams thought it was enough that people look cool and menacing. Vader is cool and menacing but we know immediately that he is searching for the stolen plans for the Death Star, and that's important because it's the Empire's new, super-powerful battlestation and if it's blown up their plans for domination are ruined. More importantly, the battlestation can blow up all the Rebels so they are fighting for existance, too!

The Force Awakens sucks for many reasons, but most of all, we have weird mysterious folks in masks and weird faces like Snoke and the Knights of Ren, but we also really don't know their motivation. The Emperor's motivation in the first two movies is a bit obscure, although from the Board Room scene with just one bit of dialogue: "The Imperial Senate will no longer be of any concern to us. I've just received word that the Emperor has dissolved the council permanently. The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away....The regional governors now have direct control over their territories. Fear will keep the local systems in line. Fear of this battle station." You get all of what the Emperor is trying to do from that. Again, the motivation and stakes are clear for both the rebels and the Empire.

The First Order's motivation is....something? They built a bigger Death Star and use it to blow up...some random planets that aren't personally connected to anyone either in the Resistance or otherwise. I thought it was Coruscant. They aren't established, they aren't a thorn in anyone's side, they're just...there and then blown up. It makes me so angry to think about, not because it ruined Star Wars but because it's just bad storytelling.

You can also get away with a blanket evil Empire without a ton of backstory, like I get that that's bad. But it was destroyed, and we all know that, so I don't think you can pull that trick twice and reset everyone back to where they were with the First Order and Resistance just being the Empire and Rebellion again. No, that makes no sense, like you skipped a lot of beats there about how that happened. I think there are artful ways to do this, probably without the moronic idea to never have the original big three of Leia, Han, and Luke united on screen at the same time, because I think it's important to acknowledge that while the universe may have shifted, their friendships remained solid, because ultimately that's what the original trilogy was all about. Luke had friends and the Emperor didn't. Wah-wah Emperor! Man these movies are bad.

Anyway, this is all ten year old territory now and nothing new but I do like articulating why this stuff doesn't work instead of just saying "It's lazy writing!" It's actually not lazy writing, it's just really bad storytelling.

Summer Jam 2025: Fun While It Lasted

 Wow. What a summer of...absolutely nothing. We've called this for a few years now but there are a lot of factors at work, namely the difficulty for new artists to have staying power, fractured listening habits, drop-offs in radio and MTV listening (which honestly exposed me to a lot of new music back in the day...I think I first heard Gorillaz' "Clint Eastwood" on MTV at 8 am one morning before school), a trend towards younger people listening to older music, and this year in particular has a noted lack of big time major artists dropping well....anything. I couldn't even come up with eight songs for the whole summer that were popular.

So here's uh...our list I guess for the past almost twenty years:

2007: "Umbrella" by Rihanna
2008: "Bleeding in Love" by Leona Lewis
2009: "I Gotta Feeling" by Black Eyed Peas
2010: "California Gurls" by Katy Perry ft. Snoop Dogg
2011: "Park Rock Anthem" by LMFAO ft. Lauren Bennett & GoonRock
2012: "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen
2013: "Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke ft. T.I. & Pharrell
2014: "Fancy" by Iggy Azalea ft. Charle XCX
2015: "Shut Up and Dance" by Walk the Moon
2016: "Can't Stop the Feeling" by Justin Timberlake
2017: "Despacito" by Daddy Yankee, Luis Fonsi ft. Justin Bieber
2018: "Never Be the Same" by Camila Cabello
2019: "Old Town Road" by Lil Nas X ft. Billy Ray Cyrus

2020: "Rockstar" by DaBaby

2021: "good 4 u" by Olivia Rodrigo

2022: "Running Up that Hill" by Kate Bush

2023: "Kill Bill" by SZA

2024: "Not Like Us" by Kendrick Lamar

Let's go ten years back for a second, because I've always had issues with "Shut Up and Dance" technically being the summer jam winner. That's just nonsense. But damn, look at these legends. Looking back it's so tempting to elevate "Cool for the Summer", "Lean on", "Trap Queen", or "Post to Be" eatin that booty like groceries. I think it should probably be "Can't Feel My Face" which is a quintessential Weeknd song, but runner-up should actually be "Bad Blood" which feels like a very minor Taylor Swift song now. I suppose this is why we can't do this thing ten years later, it really has to be in the moment. Maybe we'll stick with the wrong choice so EVERYONE can be unhappy.

So what is it this year? Here are some candidates:

"Golden" by Huntr/x

Yes, from KPOP Demon Hunters! A song from a movie! Wow! "Golden" is I suppose the best song of the pop musical movie to include. We didn't track it, but it's coming a bit too late to really be THE song of summer,

"Ordinary" by Alex Warren

Honestly, I have never heard this song before seeing it on Summer lists. It's also really bad.

"What I want" by Morgen Wallen ft. Tate McRae

Morgen might be the artist of the summer, which just a million songs going on right now. Tate McRae is also the biggest up and comer right now. This is here more because it's a vacuum of any other talent right now.

"Love Somebody" by Morgen Wallen

I'm a total victim of not really being able to distinguish country, but it's important to acknowledge their place in pop culture and Morgen Wallen has really transcended like few others ever could. This is maybe his most popular? I guess? Or maybe it's "I got better" or "I'm the Problem." I don't know, he's not winning so go listen and pout if you want.

Others

There seems to be a middling Billie Eilish, sombr, Doja Cat, Chappell Roan, Playboi Carti, and Benson Boone song every other week this summer. It's all kind of mid and blurry. So let's give it to--

"Manchild" by Sabrina Carpenter

That's right! Not only is this the real only major release by an established pop artist (as much as you can call Sabrina Carpenter "established"), but it's a worthy follow up to "Expresso" which would have made great strides last year if not for the "Not Like Us" juggernaut. It's summer-y, buzzy, poppy fun, with just a bit of girl power, but also a music video that's super Americana but also surreal and bonkers. And I know, A$AP Rocky did this last year, I literally named that video the best of the year. You can't pull that crap, Sabrina. But it also shows just how funny she is. You know, outside of her Christmas special.

Top 2020s Movies - this July!

I was thinking that the 2020s so far have been awful for movies. And that's largely true, I think we're totally beyond the era of a big widespread movie earning film of the decade honors. But I looked back a bit on what might be my favorites of the decade so far. I don't want to get into any specifics or anything here, just a list of 12 pretty good movies that can stand up to a lot from any decade. I have one thing on my mind for to categorize these:

They are all just, absolutely brutal. Like, everyone one of these is a trip. They don't end well, except maybe Barry Keoghan in Saltburn (2023). But here we go, in approximate, random July 2025 order:

Saltburn (2023)

Prey (2022)

The Holdovers (2023)

TAR (2022)

The Green Knight (2021)

The Northman (2022)

Godzilla Minus One (2024)

Nosferatu (2024)
Oppenheimer (2023)
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022)

Beau is Afraid (2023)

The Brutalist (2024)

The Brutalist might be heavy recency bias, since I just saw it like two months ago. I am always reevaluating. But Weird will stay on forever!

First Impressions Double Shot! Deadpool & Wolverine / Joker Folie a Deux

We've maybe done a double impression before but this one is special. I'd like to compare these two flicks - Deadpool & Wolverine (2024), which I saw in theaters last July, and Joker 2 (2024), which I saw on MAX a few weeks ago. Both handle fan service in wildly different ways and SPOILER - one was good! You know I'm difficult so gonna say this from the jump, I liked Joker 2 a whole lot better!

Let's rewind. I saw D&W in theaters a year ago (hence this timely post) and I was pretty pumped up. It was a really fun movie, had a lot of great action, enthralling performances, and actually found something to say. I want to go into all that in a bit, but then two things made it fall apart. First, I was pumped when it dropped on Disney+ because I genuinely wanted to ride that ride again but I found it fell totally flat. I think it was really because perhaps more than any movie maybe ever, it was ridiculously reliant on outrageous cameos. Once you know Channing Tatum's Gambit is coming, his actual presence doesn't hold much weight or push the story forward.

There is still a lot I liked about it. Mostly there is an actual thematic resonance there, which is kind of the search for a theme. Deadpool is searching for a reason to matter, which is all kinds of meta when he is trying to find his way in the new Disney / Fox merger that now lets him interact with the Avengers. How can he fit in? Well, that's a really tough puzzle, and just like Adaptation (2002), they just decided to make the movie about that.

This all comes together really well with a not so subtle plot conclusion - the collision of matter and anti-matter. They use Wolverine as a stand-in, since his Logan (2017) was really one of the weightier superhero movies ever, rich with meaning, though, and artistry. Stuff the Deadpool movies generally lack, they're just fun rides (although I really did enjoy Deadpool 2 [2018], I think there's a lot going on there), but they wallow in irreverence, compared to Logan and Wolverine as a character. But it also contrasts with the MCU, which is built upon a lot of big stories that actually matter (okay, fine, they don't, but they do pretend to!).

It made me think of Nathan Fielder's Rehearsal that just wrapped up. Is it possible to create comedy that inspires change? Where is that line? Can you make something silly that is also imbued with enough thematic resonance to actually matter? That is really at the heart of Deadpool & Wolverine. Does it stick the landing? Well, not really, but that final scene is pretty cool. Matter and anti-matter joined together in a climactic sacrifice.

Staying on that point, there were a few things I liked - one, that they didn't show Hugh Jackman's ripped physique until that moment, which seemed like definitely a way to not force him to work out and be shirtless for most of the movie. Again, there's meaning in that joke, though! It works for the theme, giving something goofy the big payoff. I also noted that they kept the mask on him for that, I really wonder if he was CGI...

Also I really hated the mask, a lot of people loved it, I don't think it worked on screen and there was a reason why they kept it off him for 24 years. Whatever, it definitely makes CGI Wolverine a lot easier. But the claws punching the machine was pretty much perfect.

Of course, though, this whole plot makes no sense, like, why was Deadpool rescued by the TVA, only to kill him later as some part of some other plot? It doesn't hold up, none of the TVA stuff really makes sense, you have to squint a lot. The first watch tumbles through on the strength of jokes and excitement. It melts pretty hard on the second watch.

I'll give Hugh Jackman a ton of credit for crafting a pretty different Wolverine than the one in Logan, but still one of the better, richer portrayals. I would have preferred a stronger background for his melancholy, like something out of Old Man Logan where he was tricked into killing the X-Men by Mysterio, but maybe that was too dark? I also noted just how much he said "fuck" in this movie. It's crazy. They really went for it.

Let's get into the rest - I think the whole 'nsync "Bye Bye Bye" gag of cool, violent guy ironically doing stereotypical gay shit is played out beyond played out by now. I feel like Deadpool is ending anyway, which is fine. There's unfortunately not a ton of evolution to be had once you've made that meta commentary. You can't just keep making it, the point is already there. I also found the ending love letter to the Fox-era Marvel movies to be laughable. I literally just ranked these on an unrelated jag and they're all terrible. What are we pining for here? X2: X-Men United (2003)? I mean, that movie's great, but it's not like this nostalgic era. And again, I don't think Deadpool totally earned the right to be sentimental. Deadpool just gets weird when he gets serious.

Okay, so why am I throwing Joker 2 into all this? Well, I really found these to be absolute polar opposite movies. D&W is really built on fan service. You're giving Wolverine the costume and the mask, you have him fight Sabretooth, oooh look it's Pyro! oooh look it's Elektra! oooh look...Gambit... Blake Lively as Ladypool! Like, all this stuff, layer upon layer. Wolverine on the cross, Age of Apocalypse, it's as if it was Leo Pointing at the Screen the Movie. Again, first time around, it largely works out of audacity, and there is some nice throughlines tying it together.

Actually, sidebar, I found it extremely ironic that at some point the plot was just that of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023), where they completely remove a notably smaller grounded story and put it in a weird alternate world where they spend most of the run time. That's totally just what this movie did. Amazing what cameos can do you for you.

Joker 2 does none of this. Like, blatantly none of this. It's mind-blowing. I approached this with a certain disdain for the first Joker (2019). I really think Todd Philips can write and shoot a movie. The Hangover: Part II (2009) is an absolute gorgeous looking film that everyone ignores because it's The Hangover: Part II. Rich film stock, depth of field, high contrast, lights, shadows, a green yellow haze over the film that matches setting to theme and feeling that lifts when they reach their goal. It's really good. So I approached it with curious optimism, but found a disjointed film that wanted to be King of Comedy (1982) but couldn't be and whose plot beats didn't quite add up, and whose intent appeared ugly and was also taken out of context by pretty much everyone.

Joker 2 made me understand Joker, though. Because I finally got it - I don't think Todd Philips gave a rat's ass about making a Joker movie or a comedy movie. He wanted to make a weird introspective gritty 80s movie. But he couldn't, so he did it through DC and made a billion dollars. Then for some reason they let him do whatever he wanted, so he made an even more introspective film about choosing your identity, social pressures, and accidental inspiration, which happens constantly in this.

I am a firm believe that so many more people would have enjoyed this film if they didn't tie it to the Joker. Like, if it was just about a dude named Arthur Fleck, I think most people would be perfectly fine. But since it has to be an intellectual property, which is how these kinds of films are ever going to get made, people put their own expectations on to what should happen. However, I felt less like my expectations were being poured into this than I did for Deadpool & Wolverine! I literally just gave you a slight rewrite a few paragraphs ago. I was just along for this ride.

The first line in the Wikipedia entry under "Themes and Analysis" says "Critics noted that the film was a work of metafiction designed to intentionally antagonize audiences who were fans of the first film." I disagree, I think intentional antagonization is a strong word. I think that's a reaction you have when you are so put back that you must assume it's intentional. It made a lot of sense to me watching it. Joker only works as the Joker when he is remorseless for his crimes. Joker 2 makes him not the Joker by giving him some humanity. He's a beta male who is tempted with alpha male-ness but then realizes what kind of monster that's making him and then owns up to his mistakes and experiences real growth as a human being. It's an astounding high wire act to pull off. GaGa is there totally wanting him to be Joker and he just refuses because that is all she wants from him. It's stunning.

Could you read GaGa as an audience surrogate, or his fans as audience surrogates? Sure, I guess. But I don't think it's extremely telegraphed that way. It feels more part of the story and authentic then a cheap ploy like that, like it's just a gut reaction. And what would that motivation be? To prank a billion dollars worth of fans of the first film?

I will admit, it's hard to see why Philips went in this direction. It seems like a direction that no one really liked, except maybe GaGa and Joaquin Phoenix. And me. It does feel a bit like a really expensive prank, but if so, I don't know why Philips wouldn't have owned it (like Fleck!) and instead supposedly spent opening weekend on his isolated ranch with the phone unplugged. It's confounding. Like, it was so brave to make this movie the way he did, and then he kind of slunk away in shame.

I can't think of a better commentary on our current culture. Deadpool & Wolverine went for cheap (well, probably not so cheap) cameos, hauling out 90-year old Hugh Jackman, and made fan service the movie and made all the money in the world. I'm not going to totally knock it, but it seems to me like it will struggle to have staying power. Joker Folie A Deux could have done that. They could have gone for big hammers and hyenas, and Batman, and whatever else. Instead, they just bucked fan service at every turn and made Joker into an actual human being and was one of the biggest flops of all time. Yay.

At the end, it does appear as if Fleck inspires the actual, possible Heath Ledger-esque Joker and that's a fun out. But I could live without it. I just keep thinking about how good this thing looks. And why the hell anyone would ever sit through a 2 hr and 18 minute courtroom drama about maybe one of the biggest character misrepresentations since Taskmaster. Why didn't it piss me off, though? Maybe because the Joker is an awful character. I mean, literally, like an awful person, maybe one of the worst people in fiction (but American, dammit!), so if you're going to make him your protagonist, you need to do something interesting with him? Or make him sympathetic in some way? I think it might be as simple as it's just well-constructed, well-shot, and well-acted movie, and those three big things are going to win me over every time.

So, listen, you probably read all the non-sense and wrote off Joker 2, I suggest you go see it. It's the least fan service movie of all time, and I really think that's more in service of crafting a good narrative rather than purposeful antagonization, which is supposedly what we all want. If you're fed up with recycled garbage (Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom! Superman again! Jurassic World: Afterbirth!), maybe check this thing out, I thought it was cool, and bold, and if it truly was just a massive career ending Todd Philips studio prank, well, I'm down for that, too.

The Quickest Note on Rankings!

Hello America and the World! We almost never do quick little update posts like this but I wanted to get ahead of some controversy. We keep extremely up to date Rankings of various clusters of movies, if you haven't checked it out, go for it!

But we have some curveballs, mostly with the new Superman (2025) movie that just came out. I thought really hard about whether I wanted to start a new DCU category in addition to our DCEU that has Aquaman and SHAZAM, and all that. That wouldn't quite be fair, because then I should slot like, Nic Cage's Ghost Rider (2007) in with Marvel, right?

Ultimately I decided to create a DCEU / DCU category. It is useful to compare current efforts with previous efforts (which is ultimately the larger point), and it also keeps things much less befuddled. I have previously had broad categories like Batman, which involves Burton, Schumacher, Nolan, and Reeves films and Spider-Man, which involves Raimi, Webb, and Spider-verse films, so I think I'm in safe territory.

So the big question now is, do I throw in those early 2000s SONY efforts into the MCU category? I don't think so, mostly because they just feel so different and aren't really connected in a major way. Nor do I really have a desire to throw in standalone efforts like Green Lantern (2011) or Jonah Hex (2010) in the DC category. These things just seem like one-off attempts that aren't fair to mix in. BUT maybe they do deserve their own category. Not Green Lantern. It's bad, let's leave it at that.

I'm also keeping all the Kanye albums. There are just a few artists where I've legitimately listened to all of their work, and that's basically Beatles, Zeppelin, and Kanye. I know he is currently controversial, and he largely wasn't when I was a big fan. Well, okay, he was controversial but just because he's an asshole, not a Nazi. I don't want to erase that history but I do want to acknowledge that people change, tastes change, but I don't think we get to pretend that I haven't listened to every Kanye album. In many ways I'M the real victim! Really though, I just want you to know that I know there are some problems there.

First Impressions: Thunderbolts*

I really had no desire to see this for a long time. All of recent Marcel output has kind of broken me. But then it got decent reviews, I still like the concept (which, don't get me wrong, is just Suicide Squad), and I do want to feel something again. Anything!

It turned out...that this thing is actually pretty good. One of the better Marvel movies...period. It is remarkably tight, balances a bunch of characters old and new, and has some legit enthralling action. Spoilers who cares, let's dive in.

I don't really know how this came about, we do have a lot of cast offs from various properties hanging around at this point. It's the tough thing, as a medium, comics are so disposable, you can have a one-off with the Leader or Yelena Belova and leave it at that. Lining up film production is such a bigger deal.

This movie feels like a melding of Black Widow and Captain America worlds, and those are pretty melded from Winter Soldier (2014). You've got Yelena, Red Guardian, and Taskmaster from Black Widow (2019) mixing it up with US Agent and Bucky from Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Throw in Ghost from Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) and we're all happy.

Oh, and Sentry of course. I was impressed with how accurate and organic they presented Sentry's origin and Lewis Pullman deftly played in between dope, God, and Devil. I read a lot of Dark Avengers and Siege storylines back in the day. This team definitely slides more akin to Dark Avengers with Julia Louis-Dreyfuss pretty much taking the Norman Osborn role, but it all works.

Let's get the rest out of the way. Taskmaster, already perhaps the most altered and wasted MCU character gets Slipknot'd here pretty much immediately. It's a bizarre game of poster and trailer editing from here. I get it. The character doesn't have too much to do, everyone hates her, why not just kill her quick.

Bucky is also weird. He brings a weariness here as the closest anyone on this team is to a real avenger but he's not the leader, definitely shouldn't be a senator, and is pretty far from the unstoppable badass he was 11 years ago. Just kind of a puppy now.

Red Guardian is David Harbour going nuts, I mean, this is the man who brought us Victor Frankenstein's Frankenstein after all. He largely hits the mark and the laughs aren't so much the "That just happened!" bullshit from Marvel, Star Wars, and SNL lately.

I do like how him, John Walker, and Taskmaster all have shields and basically everyone except Yelena have some variety of Super Soldier serum.

Ghost is...here. She's a super useful team member and the only one with real out there super powers. It'd be nice if she had any real character lifting work to do but we can't have room for everyone.

Wyatt Russell plays a really great asshole and there is enough depth here to make a somewhat well rounded character.

But the star is really Florence Pugh, who is not only effortlessly embodying this character, but somehow proving her late stage MCU value, being a WAY more interesting Black Widow than Scar Jo ever was, and being a really true Eastern European. I feel like I know girls like her, how she talks, how she reacts, is all spot on.

This film is all about trauma, and that's kind if something the MCU has needed for like six years. There us A LOT of collective trauma in this Universe that everyone ignores or plays with sarcastic disdain like Thor: Love and Thunder (2022). It took a really great screenwriter to realize this was the common bond between all these wretches, and then pull it off.

This is most centered around the Void, who is really just an unstoppable nightmare. I remember in Siege, Loki had to employ the Nurn stones just so all the heroes could fight it together and then Thor struck it with the biggest lightning bolt of all time. We really needed to see Sentry ripping Ares in half tho.

There's no way to fight this thing, the only way us to heal. While Brave New World (2025) did this with the elegance of performing surgery with a piece of wet fish, Thunderbolts* does the work and it pays off. Plus they kill a little kid! That might be the boldest move ever in the MCU.

This thing is shot pretty well, I actually struggle to remember a Marvel movie that made NYC look so big and authentic. You always got to remember that Whedon shot the Avengers like a TV show with the flatest lighting imaginable. There is good contrast here, even if it is filled with quite a bit of grays and browns, as is typical.

There is also a nice progression of moments and beats, it focuses in character, and as mostly street level blokes, it has a lot of grounded action instead of big weightless CGI. Basically everything is good and it's astounding.

I couldn't give less than a crap about the Fantastic Four (2025), no matter what the reviews will say. I'm also sincerely doubtful about Doomsday (2026), it seems way too desperate. But I do find myself for the first time in a long time really interested in seeing more of these characters and not the same old played out actors.

Where do they go from here, though? I'm not talking about that excessive Doomsday cast list. Who is still in play? I don't think Doc Strange has used up his welcome. Nor Spider-Man but they gotta figure out what to do with him. I'd like to see more Namor but I think that actor got in trouble? And man, where the hell is the most charismatic dude they got right now, Simu Liu?!

But the iced Wanda, iced Vision, I don't think the Shuri Black Panther works, no one's clamoring for Iron Heart, Kate Bishop maybe, and the Marvels, despite me being a big Teyona Parris fan, were such a dud they might just can the MCU's most powerful character.

Michael Shannon for Beta Ray Bill!

First Impressions: Sinners

 Hello there! It's been a while since I saw anything in the Theaters and I was happy to break that streak with Sinners (2025) which has gotten magnificent reviews and widespread acclaim. I didn't like it that much! I do think my criticisms are totally in line with any of the reviews that have been harsh on it, so I'll try to add to that fire. There were bits that were so rock solid in this as well, though. SPOILERS FOREVER, let's get into it!

The best summation is that this movie has an unreal first half that's grounded, interesting, well-produced, and frankly, amazing, and then a big turn into supernatural nonsense that goes completely off the rails. Let's talk about what works in the first half first and then how it all falls apart.

Longtime collaborator Michael B. Jordan rejoins Ryan Coogler in dual roles here. It's nice that this isn't really a gimmick, it's pretty motivated. Jordan plays both Stack and Smoke, twins from the Mississippi Delta region who went up to Chicago to be gangsters and then came back home to open a Juke Joint. Everything about the character set-ups are really great and the performances are fantastic. Michael B really nails playing two characters, who are separated by red and blue hats, but also in subtle personality differences and mannerisms. Stack is a bit kinder, more empathetic. Smoke is more ruthless. But they both support each other and it feels pretty real. They're also both nuanced characters. Smoke will shoot a thief in the street on principle but also has the more stable and loving relationship. Stack will argue that hardworking sharecroppers should get a break, but he's also going to insult them (Cornbread) until they buy in. It's all really great stuff.

Delroy Lindo has had a resurgence with this and Da 5 Bloods (2020) where he also shined. He's a little bit comic relief but he has an intensity to him as well. Sammie is the guitarist whose soul is on the line (although it never really feels like it, probably because Michael B. Jordan is just too charismatic to be a tempter), Wunmi Mosaku plays a weary exposition dumper but also shades of empathy. The two Asian shopkeepers really have a nuanced relationship that's developed rapidly and they end up being the most stable love story that's really sold. I loved them dancing to the blues, it's a jarring but fitting mix of multi-culturalism. And they actually have a pretty pivotal part to play.

Then there's the white folk. This gets into the second half but the acting and characters are all great. This is B movie material that is elevated because of the commitment to these roles. There's a lot of structural problems here, none that have to do with acting or characters, except the Head Vampire was the one dude whose motivation was muddy as hell, but we'll get into that.

The first half shows this step by step set up of the Juke Joint. The Twins go around town, doing their thing, recruiting everyone they need. It's all motivated, no one is random, nothing really out of place. It's shot with impeccable composition and high contrast. The endless cotton fields of Mississippi have never been seen on film like that. They center around black neighborhoods and gatherings and it feels like a really coherent world. You get bits and pieces of backstory, constantly caught in a middle of a conversation but it's clear enough that you can figure out each characters' relationship. It's equally brilliant and sadistic when Stack gets Slim to play their joint by offering him a cold beer. It speaks to his desperation, alcoholism, Stack's moral gaps, and Slim's background, that a cold beer would be so rare that he'd instantly throw away his regular Saturday night gig. Stuff like that is amazing.

The movie puts all its pieces in place and then gets them all in one room for a huge party. The Juke Joint is great but the first flaw rears its head in that the spacing is difficult to establish. It's hard to know where the entrance is, where those huge barn doors are, where the backrooms are, all of which play a really important part but it's all kind of random. I kept thinking about The Hateful Eight (2015), which plays in a similar enclosed wooden place but has such a crystal clear sense of geography.

I also find it insane that Coogler seems to have trouble lighting black faces at night. There was a scene where Stack is talking to Hailee Steinfeld and he's wearing a hat and you just can't see the work he's doing at all. The white girl is fine. He eventually takes off the hat and you see him better. I couldn't really believe that Coogler would drop the ball on something like that, but all the great contrast and lighting in the first half evaporated in the second half.

Before we start trashing this, let's talk about the obvious best scene, when Sammie starts playing unreal blues that connects to music and ancestors from the past and future. It's a really cool moment (and one that shows good spatial geography!) and you see African drummers, modern funk guitarists, DJs, and you get this really great sense of everything. It's a soulful scene, one that I think people mistake for the whole movie when they call it good.

Immediately after things go off the rails from here. Vampires stop by and start killing people. So, the idea of vampires invading a party and a group led by two gangster brothers holding out until morning is basically From Dusk Till Dawn (1995), except much less zany. Where the movie trips is that all that careful plotting and character set-up and foundation of arcs immediately starts getting rushed. We don't get a ton of pay off for Delroy Lindo, who cuts his wrists to tempt the vampires but he doesn't really take any of them out with him nor does he really buy any of the survivors more time. It's a huge waste. Other important, established characters die really quickly without getting a moment.

I did get FROM vibes, which was cool. They were pretty strict about the vampires being unable to enter houses and they did a good job trying to trick people to come in. But maybe most importantly, I do not understand how the vampires in this film operate at all.

What is their deal here. Wunmi talks about how their souls are caught between life and the only way to free them is through death. But that is wildly inconsistent. We know that when you're turned you start sharing a collective memory. But what does that mean? Is it good to be a vampire? Like, they seem instantly happy but also instantly evil? Or is it even evil to want to turn others? Do they want blood or do they want to increase their brood?

This is going to sound weird, but I started thinking about Neighbors 2 (2016), which I though really fell apart by making the opposing sorority way too sympathetic. They spent so much time justifying every motivation that you didn't know who to root for and then felt bad when the good guys won. Sinners does something similar, but skips the motivation part. Are we supposed to sympathize with the Irish vampire whose culture was also taken away? It's just a hard pill to swallow and reeks of neo-conservative "Irish were oppressed, too!" bullshit, which is true but the Irish are so ingrained in white American culture by now that it's just not a leg anyone can stand on.

The reason why this sticks is because it seemed like the Irish Vampire's big desire was to bite Sammie so that he could co-opt his music to connect with his ancestors. This is just thematically all over the place. Is it a metaphor for white people seeking to dominate black culture and call it their own? That's what it seems on the surface but it also feels like the vampire's desire to connect with his past comes from a place of genuine pain and longing, not pure evil white folk stuff. But also, wasn't that whole dance scene a metaphor?! He didn't actually bring back his ancestors, right?! It seems to confuse all this stuff and just blows apart all the good work they did.

My understanding would be that when you're bitten, you're just a part of the vampire collective. But they explicitly say that killing the head vampire won't bring everyone back. Once you're bit, that's it. Fine, so kill them all to give their souls peace. But they they don't do that! They blatantly refuse and after Stack is bit, Smoke really should have been the one to kill him, although there is zero catharsis there. Stack needed to have some kind of sin, something to atone for, some big issue. They touch on their father and his abusiveness, but Smoke killed him, seemingly without regrets. There's not really an emotional motivation in the film for Stack to become a vampire and then it does not make sense that Smoke would not be able to grow enough to let go of his brother to kill him.

But then the ending entrenches further in two big ways. First, it does seem to ease off the vampires as being the main villains by just having a bunch of white former Klansmen show up and becoming a revenge fantasy for like, two seconds. Again, I kept thinking about the incredible spatial composition of a super similar scene in Rebel Ridge (2024), which is set up with such careful tension. Here it's just time to kill white folks. Again, Tarantino-esque in justified fantasy, but it didn't seem to have anything to do with the story or Smoke's arc. It was just a reason for him to be badass.

The moral of the story seems to be don't trust the white man? Or worse, that all black-businesses are doomed to failure? Shut up and keep sharecropping? They all die because they were tempted by making a bit of money! Or maybe it's that white folk come in and ruin everything with their cultural assimilation. There are some questions there. Would we be better off with a homogeneous and harmonious cultural stew or should we appreciate black businesses and black culture for its own sake and honor those differences? I'm not sure this movie has an answer, and that's not totally a bad thing.

And then there's the mid-credits scene. Little Sammie grows up to be Buddy Guy and has a great blues career and then is visited in 1992 by Stack and Hailee Steinfeld for some reason. First, I found it insane that Steinfeld literally didn't have a line here and is more a trophy in a film that has honestly been pretty great for female characters. This was the big clincher - is it bad to be a vampire or not?! Like, they just never show the horror. Are they even killing people if they're just turning them? They seem to have their memories and personalities intact. So where is the regret? Where is the conflict after being turned? Where is the struggle? Wunmi says "That's not your brother anymore!" to Smoke. ... Is he? Is it all manipulation by the Head Irish Vampire? I kind of feel like it isn't. Maybe killing the head vampire freed them of his memories? I don't know.

All of this is just from packing in two decent ideas into one movie. I think if it was to go this deep into mysticism we needed some kind of foreshadowing of vampires, some kind of set up for emotional catharsis, and some kind of pay off for all the work they did in the first half. I think about the title, who were the Sinners and what was their sin? I don't think I need stuff spelled out but when there's so much conflicting motivation present it makes it really muddled. This movie makes me angry for how good it could have been. It's not like just watching a bad movie. It's like watching the Atlanta Falcons in the Super Bowl. You had it! And then blew it.

I will say again - the acting is amazing, the characters are so rich, the shots and progression in the first half are so good it makes this movie worth watching. 

2025 Oscar - PICK REVIEW

As any reputable publication would put out in a timely fashion, it's about time that we review those Oscar picks! I actually think I did sort of good this year. Here is goes!

Annual Records:

2025: 16/23

2024: 16/23

2023: 11/23

2022: 12/23

2021: 12/23

2020: 13/24 

2019: 13/24 

2018: 16/24 

2017: 13/24 

2016: 14/24 

2015: 13/24 

2014: 20/24 

2013: 14/24 

2012: 16/24 

2011: 14/24 

2010: 12/24 

Best Picture

Prediction: Anora

Winner: Anora

Yay! I so often get Best Picture wrong, especially in tight years. It is really surreal to see Sean Baker win four times this night.

Leading Actor

Prediction: Brody

Winner: Brody

Oof, and let's let him never win again and let that career spiral back into nothingness.

Leading Actress

Prediction: Moore

Winner: Madison

Unreal win here, very surprising, I can't quite wrap my head around it, but oh well, this was an upset for most everyone.

Supporting Actor

Prediction: Culkin

Winner: Culkin

Easy work here.

Supporting Actress

Prediction: Saldana

Winner: Saldana

Again, pretty easy pick here. I'm catching up, this was just for that one funny song, right? That's catchy.

Director

Prediction: Baker

Winner: Baker

He's deserved this for some time but it's still wild to see him with this prize.

Adapted Screenplay

Prediction: Conclave

Winner: Conclave

This was nice to get but really not a ton of competition here.

Original Screenplay

Prediction: A Real Pain

Winner: Anora

Anora just went nuts with four wins for Baker, which I'm not sure anyone would have predicted. Best Picture hardly ever gets the screenplay but yet again movies like Anora don't win all that often.

Animated Feature

Prediction: Flow

Winner: Flow

Unreal to get the Flow! I'm so pumped.

International Feature

Prediction: Emilia Perez

Winner: I'm Still Here

Really surprising considering the Emilia Perez buzz but man, this thing just dropped hard. Everyone was saying I'm Still Here would get it and I resisted the train, thinking Perez could still pull it off. Oh well, I probably should have gotten this one.

Documentary Feature

Prediction: No Other Land

Winner: No Other Land

Crushed it, no problem. Easy peasy.

Cinematography

Prediction: Dune: Part Two

Winner: The Brutalist

I had that as a possible number two pick, I should have gone with it. I really didn't think folks knew the Brutalist that well.

Costume Design

Prediction: Wicked

Winner: Wicked

A lot of this year seemed to be pretty easy to pick. Well, I still got this one!

Production Design

Prediction: Dune

Winner: Wicked

I think...this was stupid.

Film Editing

Prediction: Anora

Winner: Anora

Nailed that one, even if I missed some others, which is rewarding.

Makeup and Hairstyling

Prediction: Substance

Winner: Substance

Really rewarding to see this offbeat, insane film earn an Oscar that absolutely deserves it, too. It's so rare that stuff like this actually happens.

Original Score

Prediction: Brutalist

Winner: The Brutalist

I don't know how I picked this one, folks.

Original Song

Prediction: "El Mal"

Winner: "El Mal"

I don't get Emilia Perez, it plunked on a lot of the categories it had led in, but some just seemed too far and away a guarantee win? The Academy sucks. But I actually like this song, it's fun and engaging and got a good rhythm.

Sound

Prediction: Dune

Winner: Dune

DUNE

Visual Effects

Prediction: Dune

Winner: Dune

When will an Apes movie win? They really need to come out with a year where every bad movie happens. Maybe this year!

Animated Short Film

Prediction: Wander to Wonder

Winner: Cyrpess

Who cares!

Documentary Short Film

Prediction: Orchestra

Winner: Orchestra

Obviously I know what I'm talking about.

Live Action Short Film

Prediction: The Last Ranger

Winner: Robot

It all seems obvious sometimes. I think the Lone Ranger should have won.

Ultimately I think the only category I really should have nailed was International Feature, I don't think I would have changed anything else, some toss ups, but all in all a pretty good showing. Here's to One Battle After Another (2025)!

96 Oscars, 96 minutes!

Well it's Oscar season and we've got a long way to go! A whole 24 hours. We have a typically fantastic track record so THIS YEAR we haven't really read any predictions at all because we get it all wrong anyway. I know this is the year we get everything right. Here we go!

Best Picture

Anora (Alex Coco, Samantha Quan and Sean Baker, Producers)

The Brutalist (Nick Gordon, Brian Young, Andrew Morrison, D.J. Gugenheim and Brady Corbet, Producers)
A Complete Unknown (Fred Berger, James Mangold and Alex Heineman, Producers)
Conclave (Tessa Ross, Juliette Howell and Michael A. Jackman, Producers)
Dune: Part Two (Mary Parent, Cale Boyter, Tanya Lapointe and Denis Villeneuve, Producers)
Emilia Pérez (Pascal Caucheteux and Jacques Audiard, Producers)
I’m Still Here (Maria Carlota Bruno and Rodrigo Teixeira, Producers)
Nickel Boys (Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner and Joslyn Barnes, Producers)
The Substance (Coralie Fargeat, Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, Producers)
Wicked (Marc Platt, Producer)

Prediction: Anora

Anora had the early buzz and I like the DGA and PGA combo, even if the SAG love for Conclave is still notable. I just haven't gotten the Conclavei vibes, like what is that movie even about? I don't actually know what Anora is about, either but I am a big Sean Baker fan. I can't actually totally conceive such an outsider winning but the Oscars have been real weird lately.

Leading Actor

Adrien Brody, The Brutalist

Timothée Chalamet, A Complete Unknown
Colman Domingo, Sing Sing
Ralph Fiennes, Conclave
Sebastian Stan, The Apprentice

Prediction: Brody

This seems like his to lose, even though Fiennes had early buzz. I don't know what The Brutalist is about or what Brody is like in it, but he's just won everything he needs to.

Leading Actress

Cynthia Erivo, Wicked

Karla Sofía Gascón, Emilia Pérez
Mikey Madison, Anora
Demi Moore, The Substance
Fernanda Torres, I’m Still Here

Prediction: Moore

This is a great win for Moore and I don't see anyone as really having a chance. This is a great nod towards The Substance, which is a bonkers movie and I'd love to see the win here.

Supporting Actor

Yura Borisov, Anora

Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain
Edward Norton, A Complete Unknown
Guy Pearce, The Brutalist
Jeremy Strong, The Apprentice

Prediction: Culkin

Sounds good to me. This seems to be in the bag, which must feel nice.

Supporting Actress

Monica Barbaro, A Complete Unknown

Ariana Grande, Wicked
Felicity Jones, The Brutalist
Isabella Rossellini, Conclave
Zoe Saldaña, Emilia Pérez

Prediction: Saldana

Zoe Saldana is secretly one of the highest grossing movie stars of all time and an Oscar on her shelf would really cap it all off. I don't know what Emilia Pérez is about, either but I know that people liked it and now they don't because one of the stars said something stupid on Twitter and got cancelled. What a stupid world we live in.

Director

Jacques Audiard, Emilia Pérez

Sean Baker, Anora
Brady Corbet, The Brutalist
Coralie Fargeat, The Substance
James Mangold, A Complete Unknown

Prediction: Baker

Or maybe Corbet? I don't know. Probably Baker, that feels right.

Adapted Screenplay

A Complete Unknown (Screenplay by James Mangold and Jay Cocks)

Conclave (Screenplay by Peter Straughan)
Emilia Pérez (Screenplay by Jacques Audiard; In collaboration with Thomas Bidegain, Léa Mysius and Nicolas Livecchi)
Nickel Boys (Screenplay by RaMell Ross & Joslyn Barnes)
Sing Sing (Screenplay by Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar; Story by Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar, Clarence Maclin, John “Divine G” Whitfield)

Prediction: Conclave

I think this will go that way as a compensation for missing out on the big award.

Original Screenplay

Anora (Written by Sean Baker)

The Brutalist (Written by Brady Corbet, Mona Fastvold)
A Real Pain (Written by Jesse Eisenberg)
September 5 (Written by Moritz Binder, Tim Fehlbaum; Co-Written by Alex David)
The Substance (Written by Coralie Fargeat)

Prediction: A Real Pain

This always goes to movies like that.

Animated Feature

Flow (Gints Zilbalodis, Matīss Kaža, Ron Dyens and Gregory Zalcman)

Inside Out 2 (Kelsey Mann and Mark Nielsen)
Memoir of a Snail (Adam Elliot and Liz Kearney)
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (Nick Park, Merlin Crossingham and Richard Beek)
The Wild Robot (Chris Sanders and Jeff Hermann)

Prediction: Flow

Man I hope it's Flow! So good!

International Feature

I’m Still Here (Brazil)

The Girl With the Needle (Denmark)
Emilia Pérez (France)
The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Germany)
Flow (Latvia)

Prediction: Emilia Perez

Maybe Flow! Probably Perez, even though everyone hates it, those foreign French bastards are probably still into it. I don't think anyone else has any momentum and folks will at least vote for the one they know.

Documentary Feature

Black Box Diaries (Shiori Ito, Eric Nyari and Hanna Aqvilin)

No Other Land (Basel Adra, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal and Yuval Abraham)
Porcelain War (Brendan Bellomo, Slava Leontyev, Aniela Sidorska, Paula DuPre’ Pesman)
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat (Johan Grimonprez, Daan Milius and Rémi Grellety)
Sugarcane (Julian Brave NoiseCat, Emily Kassie and Kellen Quinn)

Prediction: No Other Land

I think that's a thing?

Cinematography

The Brutalist (Lol Crawley)

Dune: Part Two (Greig Fraser)
Emilia Pérez (Paul Guilhaume)
Maria (Ed Lachman)
Nosferatu (Jarin Blaschke)

Prediction: Dune: Part Two

Or the Brutalist. I don't know, we'll see but Dune was the bigger deal for sure.

Costume Design

A Complete Unknown (Arianne Phillips)

Conclave (Lisy Christl)
Gladiator II (Janty Yates and Dave Crossman)
Nosferatu (Linda Muir)
Wicked (Paul Tazewell)

Prediction: Wicked

People seemed to like this one.

Production Design

The Brutalist (Production Design: Judy Becker; Set Decoration: Patricia Cuccia)

Conclave (Production Design: Suzie Davies; Set Decoration: Cynthia Sleiter)
Dune: Part Two (Production Design: Patrice Vermette; Set Decoration: Shane Vieau)
Nosferatu (Production Design: Craig Lathrop; Set Decoration: Beatrice Brentnerová)
Wicked (Production Design: Nathan Crowley; Set Decoration: Lee Sandales)

Prediction: Dune

I think they will go to Dune, or Wicked. Dune seems like a big hook for the technical awards, it's just that kind of film that had appeal to the big dumb nerds who vote on this stuff.

Film Editing

Anora (Sean Baker)

The Brutalist (David Jancso)
Conclave (Nick Emerson)
Emilia Pérez (Juliette Welfling)
Wicked (Myron Kerstein)

Prediction: Anora

All these are in the running. I don't know, I have such a gap this year. Go with the best picture? Or if it loses, this is a nice way to make it up?

Makeup and Hairstyling

A Different Man (Mike Marino, David Presto and Crystal Jurado)

Emilia Pérez (Julia Floch Carbonel, Emmanuel Janvier and Jean-Christophe Spadaccini)
Nosferatu (David White, Traci Loader and Suzanne Stokes-Munton)
The Substance (Pierre-Olivier Persin, Stéphanie Guillon and Marilyne Scarselli)
Wicked (Frances Hannon, Laura Blount and Sarah Nuth)

Prediction: Substance

The Substance is definitely better but I think Wicked is flashier and more notable. Folks seem to be pulling for the Substance and I am too.

Original Score

The Brutalist (Daniel Blumberg)

Conclave (Volker Bertelmann)
Emilia Pérez (Clément Ducol and Camille)
Wicked (John Powell and Stephen Schwartz)
The Wild Robot (Kris Bowers)

Prediction: Brutalist

I think Wicked was nominated too much and is too popular in a year full of largely extremely unpopular movies and it would win a bunch. Okay, I broke down and checked out what experts predict and they think it's Brutalist. Fine, but I will choke down when dumbass Wicked wins.

Original Song

“El Mal” from Emilia Pérez (Music by Clément Ducol and Camille; Lyric by Clément Ducol, Camille and Jacques Audiard)

“The Journey” from The Six Triple Eight (Music and Lyric by Diane Warren)
“Like a Bird” from Sing Sing (Music and Lyric by Abraham Alexander and Adrian Quesada)
“Mi Camino” from Emilia Pérez (Music and Lyric by Camille and Clément Ducol)
“Never Too Late” from Elton John: Never Too Late (Music and Lyric by Elton John, Brandi Carlile, Andrew Watt and Bernie Taupin)

Winner: "El Mal"

This is apparently the favorite? I'd like to see Brandi Carlile.

Sound

A Complete Unknown (Tod A. Maitland, Donald Sylvester, Ted Caplan, Paul Massey and David Giammarco)

Dune: Part Two (Gareth John, Richard King, Ron Bartlett and Doug Hemphill)
Emilia Pérez (Erwan Kerzanet, Aymeric Devoldère, Maxence Dussère, Cyril Holtz and Niels Barletta)
Wicked (Simon Hayes, Nancy Nugent Title, Jack Dolman, Andy Nelson and John Marquis)
The Wild Robot (Randy Thom, Brian Chumney, Gary A. Rizzo and Leff Lefferts)

Prediction: Dune

I might just be rolling safe and picking Dune for all these technical stuff, it's going to win at least one and probably all of them.

Visual Effects

Alien: Romulus (Eric Barba, Nelson Sepulveda-Fauser, Daniel Macarin and Shane Mahan)

Better Man (Luke Millar, David Clayton, Keith Herft and Peter Stubbs)
Dune: Part Two (Paul Lambert, Stephen James, Rhys Salcombe and Gerd Nefzer)
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (Erik Winquist, Stephen Unterfranz, Paul Story and Rodney Burke)
Wicked (Pablo Helman, Jonathan Fawkner, David Shirk and Paul Corbould)

Prediction: Dune

It really should be Kingdom, which may continue this franchise's streak of never winning acknowledgment of its monumental achievements once again.

Animated Short Film

Beautiful Men (Nicolas Keppens and Brecht Van Elslande)

In the Shadow of the Cypress (Shirin Sohani and Hossein Molayemi)
Magic Candies (Daisuke Nishio and Takashi Washio)
Wander to Wonder (Nina Gantz and Stienette Bosklopper)
Yuck! (Loïc Espuche and Juliette Marquet)

Prediction: Wander to Wonder

One in five shot! Funnest title wins!

Documentary Short Film

Death by Numbers (Kim A. Snyder and Janique L. Robillard)
I Am Ready, Warden (Smriti Mundhra and Maya Gnyp)
Incident (Bill Morrison and Jamie Kalven)
Instruments of a Beating Heart (Ema Ryan Yamazaki and Eric Nyari)
The Only Girl in the Orchestra (Molly O’Brien and Lisa Remington)

Prediction: Orchestra

Death! By numbers... Folks seem to want Orchestra, though.

Live Action Short Film

A Lien (Sam Cutler-Kreutz and David Cutler-Kreutz)

Anuja (Adam J. Graves and Suchitra Mattai)
I’m Not a Robot (Victoria Warmerdam and Trent)
The Last Ranger (Cindy Lee and Darwin Shaw)
The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent (Nebojša Slijepčević and Danijel Pek)

Prediction: The Last Ranger

Sounds kind of like the Lone Ranger! That's fun.

What do you think will win? I think we got it this year.