Sinners (2025)

Twin brothers Smoke and Stack open up their own juke joint in 1932 Mississippi where they're visited by some unsavory characters who are out for blood.

God damn, it took forever for this movie to turn into From Dusk Till Dawn, and by the time it did, it was already over. There are some eerie and entrancing sequences set to music, but the vampire angle is all played out and it doesn't offer much else in the way that hasn't been previously explored elsewhere. As massively overhyped as it is, it does tend to stay with you regardless.

Be sure to stick through the credits; the story ain't over yet.

3 guitar cases out of 5

Babylon (2022)

Damien Chazelle (La La Land) directs this epic historical black comedy about Hollywood's rocky transition from silent film to "talkies" in the late 1920s. And particularly, just how difficult an adjustment that was for certain performers.

I thought it was beautiful, in a frenetic, drug-addled way. I love how it tells the evolution of film history in a much darker fashion than Singin' in the Rain ever could back in 1952. It celebrates the wild excesses of a time long gone by as a very entertaining fever dream with great original music (by La La Land's Justin Hurwitz) throughout. It's not as personal a story as The Fabelmans, but it's just as relevant to understanding the ways the world has changed over the past century. It's about those who came before us and those who will be there after us. I found it existential amidst all the crazy orgies and bodily fluids.

4 "it girls" out of 5