13 Nights of Shocktober: Jurassic Park

by A.J. 

Night 2: Sam Neil Memorial Night

An Adventure 65 Million Years In The Making

Jurassic Park

Earlier this year, the great Sam Neill passed away at the age of 78 leaving behind an eclectic decades-long filmography. He could play many different kinds of characters with ease whether they were supporting roles, villains, or the lead. I’ve previously recommended what I think are his best horror movies (In the Mouth of Madness and Possession), so this year my Sam Neill Memorial recommendation is his most famous movie: Jurassic Park

Is Jurassic Park a horror movie? Well, No, not really. Is it a monster movie? Spielberg says, no. He purposefully did not want to make a monster a movie and was determined to make something more than a "genre" picture [horror movie]. Jurassic Park is certainly something special, but I might argue that it is secretly a monster movie. Is it a nature run amok movie? Absolutely. Is it scary? Yes. Certain scenes are as frightening as anything from the best horror movies. Is it a Shocktober movie? Yes, most definitely.

Neill plays Dr. Alan Grant, a paleontologist who is invited, along with his girlfriend, Dr. Ellie Sadler (Laura Dern), a paleobotanist, by entrepreneur Mr. Hammond (David Attenbough) to tour, and hopefully endorse, his new “biological preserve.” The animals on the island preserve turn out to be dinosaurs, to the astonishment and wonder of the characters and audiences alike, but, unfortunately, the park is sabotaged during a tropical storm, and dino mayhem ensues. 

Even with a cast that includes Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, and Samuel L. Jackson, the real stars are the dinosaurs. It might be hard to explain to younger viewers just how groundbreaking and awe-inspiring the dinosaur effects were, but then again, maybe not because the CGI effects in today’s mega budget blockbusters does not come close to looking as good as even Jurassic Park's test demo footage from 1993. Jurassic Park may be one of the few movies where the reactions from the characters truly mirror that of the audience, whether they are wonderstruck or frightened.

Even though the movie has two kid characters, Lex (Ariana Richards) and Tim (Joseph Mazzello), the excitement and childlike wonder and joy of seeing living dinosaurs is conveyed most effectively through Sam Neill. The moment of him fumbling to get his sunglasses off is the perfect set up for the first time we see a dinosaur, a brachiosaurus eating from tree tops. In the shot of him lying on the belly of a sick triceratops feeling and listening to it breathe, Neill shows such genuine joy that of course the modern internet turned it into a meme. Even after the T-Rex attack and everything with the park goes wrong, Grant is still fascinated by the dinosaurs; by brachiosaur that surprises them in a treetop (“Just think of it as a big cow,” he tells Lex, who has had enough of being around dinosaurs); by the dinosaur eggs that prove life does indeed find a way; by the galimimuses that move like a flock of birds. Yet, Grant is also the main source of skepticism about a dinosaur theme park. His reaction to the very idea of velociraptors at the park tells us how dangerous, and clever, they are.  

The Tyrannosaurus Rex attack is terrifying. It seems to go on and on the way that real moments of terror feel like they will never end. The scene of Nedry (Wayne Knight), the park’s traitorous computer programmer, and the dilophosaurus in the rainy wilderness is a lot scarier than any scene of a teenager coming across a slasher in the woods. The scene of the raptors stalking Lex and Tim through the park’s large industrial kitchen really is like something out of a horror movie, specifically The Shining where axe wielding Jack stalks Danny through the Overlook Hotel’s large industrial kitchen. I think the scariest scene is the opening prologue where park workers load a new velociraptor into the raptor pen only for it to attack one of the workers. It is done very simply and we see very little, but it is very intense nonetheless. 

Even with two direct sequels and a multi-movie reboot franchise, the original is not diminished; it does not feel quaint by comparison. If anything, it holds up better than the sequels and reboots. Jurassic Park still holds wonder and adventure and thrills. 

Jurassic Park is currently available to stream on Starz, rent on Prime Video and other sources. It's also available on DVD/Blu-ray/4K and probably at your local library.

13 Nights of Shocktober: The Golem (1920)

by A.J.

Night 1: Silent Horror Night

“He is my servant and my creation, called Golem. More I cannot say.”

The Golem (1920)

When it comes to silent horror films, the most famous are undoubtedly Nosferatu (1922), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), and The Phantom of the Opera (1925). The Golem (1920) is usually not far behind, and it certainly belongs in the cannon of silent horror classics. Like Caligari and Nosferatu, The Golem is a German Expressionist film, a style in which filmmakers sought to visually express emotions or psychological state rather than reality. This film does not have the extremely exaggerated and surreal production design like Robert Weine’s Caligari, but eerie sights abound. It may not carry the same kind of scares as Phantom, Nosferatu, and Caligari, but its blend of folklore and fantasy make for an interesting film.

The Golem: How He Came Into The World: Pictures Based on Events in an Old Chronicle by Paul Wegener: Five Chapters, or The Golem for short, is the only surviving film of a trilogy by director Paul Wegener, who also played the Golem. The first film, The Golem (1915), was based on a novel by Gustav Meyrink that moved the medieval story to modern times, and the second, The Golem and the Dancing Girl (1917), was a comedy. This third and final Golem film was meant to serve as a prequel of sorts telling the most well-known version of the legend.

In the Jewish quarter of Prague, the wise and mystical Rabbi Loew (Albert Steinrück) reads in the stars that a catastrophe is looming over his people. Then a royal decree is announced demanding all Jewish people leave the city before the next new moon. So, Rabbi Loew creates and brings to life the Golem, a large hulking figure made of clay, to serve him and save the Jewish people of Prague. Of course, if Rabbi Loew loses control over his new servant, it could mean the destruction of not only the Jewish quarter but the entire city and beyond.

The scene of Rabbi Loew summoning the dreaded spirit Astaroth to force it to reveal the animating word for the Golem is creepy and nightmarish. The entire scene is tinted green and eerie flames surround Loew and his assistant. Astaroth appears as a giant stone head with a gargoyle-like face, smoke bellowing from its mouth. The Golem itself is an odd-looking creation. Like Frankenstein’s Creature, he is a larger version of a man but with a bulky body, grim facial expression, and helmet-like hair that would put Dark Helmet from Spaceballs to shame. Since the Golem is a servant, he starts out doing errands like going to the market, which is an amusing scene.

Another striking scene comes when the Golem encounters a little girl outside of the city gates. It is an especially tense moment because by this point the Golem has already killed someone and begun his rampage. It is strikingly similar to the scene in James Whale’s Frankenstein (1931) where the Monster encounters the little girl by the pond, though both creations are at different points in their journeys and the results are very different. Since no such scene appears in Mary Shelley’s novel and the Hollywood horror filmmakers of the early 1930’s were influenced by German Expressionist films (The Golem cinematographer Karl Freund would go on to direct The Mummy (1932) and Mad Love (1935)), it’s not unreasonable to think that Frankenstein drew on The Golem in direct and indirect ways.

Like many silent films The Golem suffered from neglect and deterioration and had to be restored from various versions found in film vaults across the world. It is in the public domain and can easily be found Youtube, however, quality restorations can be found on DVD/Blu-ray released by Kino Lorber. It is also streaming on Kanopy.

Best Pictures #128: My Pick for Best Picture of 2025

by A.J.

 Best Pictures #128: My Pick for Best Picture of 2025

The 98th Academy Awards

The 98th Academy Awards ceremony for films released in 2025 was held on March 15th, 2026. Conan O'Brien once again hosted, bringing his lively persona and humor to the ceremony; all of the non-Conan related comedy, such as forced banter between presenters, fell flat. Sound problems seemed to persist throughout the ceremony, most notably during Barbara Streisand's spoken tribute to the late, great Robert Redford; when it was time for her to sing, Barbara had a different microphone. 

Before the ceremony even began this was already a historic Academy Awards with Sinners earning the most nominations of any film in Academy history. This indeed did turn out to be a historic Academy Awards ceremony for a few different reasons. The frontrunner for Original Song, Golden from K-Pop Demon Hunters, won to no one's surprise; but it became the first K-Pop song to win an Academy Award. Sinners won only 4 of its 16 nominations, but one of them was for Autumn Durald Arkapaw for Cinematography, making her the first woman to win that category. Sinners also won Best Actor for Michael B. Jordan, Original Screenplay for Ryan Coogler, and Original Score for Ludwig Göransson. A rare tie, only the 7th in the 98years, in the Live Action Short category, between The Singers and Two People Exchanging Saliva, shook things up, and no doubt helped certain Oscar pools. Amy Madigan now holds the record for longest gap between nominations with 40 years passing between her Supporting Actress nomination for Twice in a Lifetime and her second nomination for the horror movie Weapons. Thankfully the wait was worth it and she took home the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. 

Overall the class of nominees for 2025 turned out to be eclectic group. Two foreign language movies, The Secret Agent form Brazil and Sentimental Value from Norway) were nominated for both Best Picture and Best International Feature, making that category a bit tricky to predict. Ultimately, Sentimental Value took home to Norway the Best International Feature Oscar. The Academy's aversion to horror is well known so it is very satisfying that two horror films, Frankenstein and Sinners were included in the Best Picture nominees. F1, a big budget crowd pleaser and Train Dreams, a small, thoughtful personal drama, both earned recognition. Marty Supreme, about a table tennis hustler in the 1950's, and Hamnet, about Anne Hathaway/Shakespeare, are both period dramas inspired by fictionalized representations of real people and were included as well. Only the Academy's love of Emma Stone and director Yorgos Lanthimos explain Bugonia's inclusion in the Best Picture nominees. Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another ended up being the big winner of the night, taking home 6 Oscars, including the big award, Best Picture. 

My Pick for Best Picture of 2025: One Battle After Another

It's no secret that I am a fan of writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson; I have been since I saw Magnolia in theaters when I was 14. He has long been on the Academy's radar, earning nominations, without winning, since 1997's Boogie Nights, so his wins for Best Adapted Screenplay, Director, and Best Picture, are, on one hand, a long time coming. On the other, One Battle After Another is a singular cinematic achievement. Anderson is such a talented and skilled filmmaker that any one of his films ranks among the best of its respective year. No matter the subject matter or the setting, his films have the sprawling scope and feel of an epic (with Hard Eight and Punch Drunk Love being the still excellent exceptions). The characters in his movies are allowed complexities and contradictions and unspoken motivations, allowing for captivating performances from the cast. Each P.T. Anderson picture feels like a treat. One Battle After Another is no different. Many things make this movie timely, and thus political, but the core of the movie is about a father and daughter; about parents wanting to protect their children from the problems of the past and realizing that is not possible; about how hope rests in the next generation. This is what will give One Battle After Another a lasting resonance no matter political landscape may be. I can't wait to see this P.T. Anderson movie again and I can't wait to see the next one. 

Best Pictures #127: 2025 Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee: One Battle After Another

by A.J. 

Best Pictures #127: 2025 Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

One Battle After Another

“Do the revolution, baby. Go do it.”

At first glance One Battle After Another can seem like an intimidating film. Certain images and plot points seem like they have been ripped from the headlines and reflect current news coverage almost too strongly. The plot is serious but the main character is out of his depth to a comedic but frightening degree. There is also the lengthy runtime of 2hours 42 minutes. Yet, from the first shot to the last, master filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson has crafted a thoroughly engrossing and captivating one of a kind film. This is an action movie, a satire, a thriller, a family drama, a comedy, a chase movie. It received an impressive 13 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Director, and Actor for Leonardo DiCaprio, and is indeed a most Oscar worthy movie. 

The runtime is long but need not be intimidating. The first 30 minutes breeze by like the first 10 minutes of most other movies. This is all the more impressive since so much information is clearly and cleanly delivered without feeling rushed. This steady pace continues throughout the rest of the movie. The Best Editing nomination for Andy Jurgensen is certainly deserved. The shifts in tone may sound jarring–one scene will be serious and tense, another will be slapstick comedy–but they are never abrupt or take you out of the experience. No scene or character feels out of place because this was meant to be a strange movie. 

Plotwise and character-wise there is a lot to unpack, but nothing is ever hard to follow. From what I understand, Anderson’s screenplay is only loosely based on the Thomas Pynchon novel Vineland, about a group of Nixon-era radicals dealing with living in the Reagan-era. Anderson moves the story to a time resembling the present day, even when the story jumps forward 16 years; it’s worth noting that no specific year is ever given. In the world of this movie, the military seems to be the police or the police have been so militarized that there is no difference. The branch of the military that the villain, Col. Stephen J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn, in one of his best performances), belongs to is never stated. He uses all the resources at his disposal, including unnecessary immigrant raids and inciting a riot, to pursue a personal vendetta against the main characters and secure a place in the secret right-wing white supremacist cabal that runs the country and calls themselves the Christmas Adventurers Club. They greet each other by saying “Hail Saint Nick.” Again, this movie is meant to be strange.

Lockjaw’s vendetta stems from his hate and desire for a member of the revolutionary group The French 75 named Perfidia Beverly Hills (Supporting Actress nominee Teyana Taylor in an extremely memorable but brief performance). After she disappears, Lockjaw then pursues her romantic partner, who now goes by Bob (Leonardo DiCaprio) and spends his days getting stoned and watching old movies, and Perfidia’s now teenage daughter, Willa (Chase Infiniti), who thinks her dad’s talk about secret codes and surveillance is just paranoia. Lockjaw swoops in, Willa goes on the run, and Bob has to spring back into action, but the springs are 50 years old and very rusty.  

Leonardo DiCaprio is great at playing a dad, especially the type that thinks they are the “cool dad.” One of the funniest scenes of any movie from last year is Bob grilling Willa’s friends who stop by to take her to the school dance; the way he calls one of them “homie” is comedic gold. I think the one quick moment that best encapsulates his character is when he greets a group of Hispanics not with hello but with a very earnest, “Viva Zapata.” Maybe the biggest hurdle Bob faces is remembering the password to get the location of the rendezvous point from the annoying and obdurate revolutionary hotline operator.  His main ally, and in many ways the secret hero of the movie, is Sensei Sergio (Benicio Del Toro), whose unshakable calmness is a much needed counterpoint to Bob’s franticness and is very funny in its own way. 

For some viewers and critics this movie is too political, for others it is not political enough. There are no didactic scenes or speeches. Anderson’s screenplay makes no attempt to solve the issues and political situations that force the characters into their positions. Such an attempt would be reductive to the real world issues the movie mirrors and come across as foolish, no matter how sincere. The core of the story is a parent trying to protect their child. The main theme, which again is never stated, is that the good fight is never done. These are the things that will give One Battle After Another a lasting resonance beyond the current time.  

The look of the movie is absolutely fantastic with Oscar nominated cinematography by Michael Bauman. Two sequences in particular stand out. The first is the nighttime run across rooftops of Bob and a group of Hispanic teenagers as they are lit by fiery chaos below. The second is the climactic car chase over the sharp hills of a lonely stretch of desert road. This is one of the best photographed scenes of action in years (maybe only Top Gun: Maverick comes close in comparison). 

With Hard Eight and Punch Drunk Love being the (still superb) exceptions, Paul Thomas Anderson always finds a way to give his movies a sprawling epic feel. No matter the story or the setting, his films do not unfold the way you might expect. Also, no matter the story or setting, he finds humor in the most unlikely scenarios, which goes a long way to making his films approachable and entertaining. I’m not sure where I would rank One Battle After Another in Anderson’s filmography, but among the movies of 2025 it ranks at the top. 

One Battle After Another is available to stream on HBOmax.

Nominees: Adam Somner, Sara Murphy, Paul Thomas Anderson, producers Director: Paul Thomas Anderson Screenplay: Paul Thomas Anderson Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, Chase Infiniti Production Companies: Warner Bros. Pictures, Ghoulardi Film Company Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures Release Date: September 26th, 2025 Total Nominations: 13, including Best Picture Other Nominations: Actor-Leonardo DiCaprio; Director-Paul Thomas Anderson; Supporting Actor-Benicio Del Toro; Supporting Actor-Sean Penn; Supporting Actress-Teyana Taylor; Adapted Screenplay-Paul Thomas Anderson; Cinematography-Michael Bauman; Production Design Florencia Martin (production designer), Anthony Carlino (set decorator); Editing-Andy Jurgensen; Original Score-Jonny Greenwood; Sound-José Antonio García, Christopher Scarabosio, Tony Villaflor; Casting-Cassandra Kulukundis

Best Pictures #126: 2025 (98th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee: Sentimental Value

 by A.J.

Best Pictures #126: 2025 (98th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

Sentimental Value

"But what the house disliked more than noise was silence."

Sentimental Value has all of the ingredients and even the perfect title for an overwrought family melodrama. It certainly is a family drama. The premise is tailor made to incite conflict: Two daughters reconnect with their estranged filmmaker father when he wants one them, an actress, to star in his comeback project, which is about the suicide of his mother and he wants to film it in their family home. This could have been a soap opera, and probably a very interesting one, but in the hands of Norwegian director Joaquim Trier and his longtime co-writer Eskil Vogt (the team behind the acclaimed and very entertaining The Worst Person in the World, and Reprise, one of my favorite movies of the aughts) Sentimental Value is a substantial work.

The estranged filmmaker father is Gustav, played by the incredible Stellan Skarsgård, who is out of touch with his adult daughters, Nora (Renata Reinsve) and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas), on just about every level. He thinks that the role in his new movie could be Nora’s breakthrough, never mind that she is already a successful theater actress. His conversations with Agnes, who acted in his films as a child, are more cordial but she holds her own resentments in her own ways. A line is crossed when he wants Agnes’s young son to be in the new movie. He’s also out of touch with the new landscape of moviemaking. When asked if his new movie, a Netflix production, will play in theaters, he responds, “Where else?” 

At a film festival he’s approached by Rachel (Elle Fanning), an American movie star who is looking to challenge herself as an actress. Fanning, in one of her best performances, is great at playing an actress who is good, and earnestly wants to be better, but is not right for the role. 

If this movie feels unfocused or episodic that's only because no person's life is only about one thing. Trier and Vogt's Oscar nominated original screenplay aims to capture that. Certain sequences feel like they could be self-contained short films. My favorite of these is Gustav and Rachel on the beach at a film festival. An early scene of Nora having breakdown moments before she has to go on stage is another great self contained sequence. 

Sentimental Value is not afraid of being upfront with its themes and symbolism. A prologue tells us about Nora's 6th grade essay that imagined what the old family house saw and felt. A narrator tells us about a crack running through the house, splitting it. In a surreal moment, reminiscent of Ingmar Bergman's Persona, the faces of Gustav, Nora, and Agnes all blur together. More than one scene of Nora expressing anguish or sadness turns out to be her acting. 

When the confrontations come, they are not big or loud. There are great performances from the whole cast but no one showboats. It’s no surprise that all of the principal performers have received Oscar nominations: Renate Reinsve for Actress; Elle Fanning and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas for Supporting Actress; Stellan Skarsgård for Supporting Actor, somehow the first Oscar nomination of his impressive and eclectic career. No matter the combination of characters in a scene, their interactions are unmannered enough to feel realistic and that's what makes them so interesting to watch. These characters are allowed layers and complexities and contradictions. 

This certainly has all the markings of an Oscar bait movie. It received a total 9 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best International Picture, so I suppose it is. Yet, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Sentimental Value is also the kind of movie that Hollywood used to make on a semiregular basis and rarely makes now. I don’t care if it comes from Norway or has subtitles; I’m just glad movies like this are still being made somewhere and that people, the Academy included, are taking notice. 

Sentimental Value is available to rent on Amazon Prime Video.

Nominees: Maria Ekerhovd, Andrea Berentsen Ottmar, producers

Director: Joachim Trier

Screenplay: Eskil Vogt & Joachim Trier

Cast: Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Elle Fanning

Production Companies: Mer Film, Eye Eye Pictures, MK Productions, et al. 

Distributor: Neon, Mubi

Release Date: December 26th, 2025

Total Nominations: 9, including Best Picture

Other Nominations: International Feature Film; Actress-Renate Reinsve; Director-Joachim Trier; Supporting Actor-Stellan Skarsgård; Supporting Actress-Elle Fanning; Supporting Actress-Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas; Original Screenplay-Joachim Trier, Eskil Vogt; Editing-Olivier Bugge Coutté 

Best Pictures #125: 2025 (98th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee: Train Dreams

 by A.J.

Best Pictures #125: 2025 (98th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

Train Dreams

“The world needs a hermit in the woods as much as a preacher in the pulpit.”

I suppose you could describe Train Dreams as an arthouse film, though that is a loaded term; even my guard goes up when I hear about an arthouse movie. Train Dreams is not conventional; it is not mainstream. There are none of the typical beats that fill an average American movie. Such moments and tropes would ruin a gentle and sensitive movie like this. Sometimes a critic will call a movie they love a gem. Well, this movie is a gem; something to be treasured and appreciated and shared. Each time you look at it from just a slightly different perspective, it reveals something new and wonderful and enchanting. 

The plot, to the extent that there is a plot, is extremely simple. Joel Edgerton plays Robert Grainier, a logger living in the Pacific Northwest during the early decades of the 20th century. That's it. He is a quiet and shy person but on a rare trip to church he meets Gladys (Felicity Jones). Actually she introduces herself to him. Robert does not seem like the type to do such a thing himself. They are a wonderful match and have a daughter, but Robert spends much of his time away on logging jobs. He and Gladys plan to save money to turn their land into a farm, but things do not go as planned.

Joel Edgerton is great as the lowkey Robert. His face shows us that he is a simple man who still has deep thoughts and emotions going on beneath the surface. Robert knows that there is more meaning to life and existence and nature. He also knows that he doesn't know how to make sense of the larger meaning behind everything or how to even start contemplating it. 

Robert is haunted by his inadvertent participation in the murder of a Chinese railroad worker; he asks what the man did and is never given an answer. He asks a fellow logger, the aged Arn Peoples (William H. Macy), whose folksy wisdom likely comes from a lifetime of experiences he probably would rather not have had, if a person can be followed by the bad things he does in his life. Arn says that he's seen bad people be lifted up and good people be brought down but if he had the answer he would be sleeping next to someone better looking than Robert.

William H. Macy is a nice, lively addition as the folksy would-be philosopher Arn. His thoughts, which he is very ready to share, are not esoteric or cryptic. Only when asked about his family does he obfuscate and become cagey; that tells us all we need to know. Gladys risks becoming more of a symbol than a character but Felicity Jones gives her warmth and substance, even with relatively little screen time.

Any screenwriting or film professor will tell you not to use narration, that it is a crutch and you must show, not tell. Of course, there are many examples of good narration that adds to a movie without condescending to the audience or taking away from the performances. This is one such example. The narration here is wonderfully spoken by Will Patton, a character actor so prolific that, yes, you have absolutely seen him before. He also read the audiobook of the novella by Denis Johnson so perhaps him being the narrator is no big surprise, yet it in no way diminishes the great effect of his superb skill at bringing words to life (Patton has also read several other audiobooks and his narration makes them worth listening to). The narration along with the masterful Oscar nominated cinematography by Adolpho Veloso and the ethereal but not out of place score by Bryce Dessner give Train Dreams its poetic qualities. 

The influence of the films of Terrence Malick (Badlands and especially Days of Heaven) can be seen and felt in Train Dreams. However, and this may be heresy to some, I feel that director and co-writer Clint Bentley surpasses Malick (at least the recent films) in that Train Dreams is more than a philosophical exploration of existence and meaning. This film ponders these things too of course, but it hits on a subtle but no less affecting emotional and almost spiritual level. Train Dreams might seem like a slight movie since it is about the life of a rather ordinary, obscure man but that does not mean that his life or the film are not something special. Train Dreams is one of the best movies I have seen in quite some time. I can’t wait to see it again. 

Train Dreams is available to stream on Netflix.

Nominees: Marissa McMahon, Teddy Schwarzman, Will Janowitz, Ashley Schlaifer, Michael Heimler, producers

Director: Clint Bentley

Screenplay: Clint Bentley & Greg Kwedar; based on the novel by Denis Johnson

Cast: Joel Edgerton, Felicity Jones, Kerry Condon, William H. Macy

Production Companies: Black Bear, Kamala Films

Distributor: Netflix

Release Date: November 7th, 2025

Total Nominations: 4, including Best Picture

Other Nominations: Adapted Screenplay-Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar; Cinematography-Adolpho Veloso; Original Song-"Train Dreams", Music by Nick Cave and Bryce Dessner, Lyric by Nick Cave

Best Pictures #124: 2025 (98th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee: Sinners

by A.J.

Best Pictures #124: 2025 (98th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

Sinners

"A sinner like me, I can't ask for more than that."

I used to say that a genuinely good horror movie only comes along every 5 years or so. Thankfully, the last few years have proven me wrong. 2025 was a good year for horror movies, but the clear stand out was writer-director Ryan Coogler's Sinners. It was a box office and critical hit, a rare combination for a horror movie. It is also rare for the Academy Awards to recognize a movie released in the first half of the year. It is even rarer for the Academy to recognize horror movies. So, it is very remarkable and exciting that Sinners not only received Oscar nominations, but received 16 nominations including Best Picture, the most of any film in Academy history. This is fitting because Sinners is a most remarkable and special film. 

In his 5th collaboration with Ryan Coogler (after Creed and the Black Panther movies to name a few), Michael B. Jordan plays gangster twins Smoke and Stack in 1932 Mississippi. After 7 years in Chicago they return to their hometown loaded with cash, Irish beer, Italian wine, and a secret trunk to set up a juke joint, have a good time, and watch the money flow in. They reconnect with friends and lovers, not all of whom are excited to see Smoke and Stack return. They also take in their teenage cousin, Sammie (Miles Caton), nicknamed Preacherboy, who is supremely gifted at the guitar and playing the blues, which sets him at odds with his stern preacher father. 

There are two halves to Sinners and any film with this kind of structure, especially one where the tone and even genre shift drastically, risks being uneven or a letdown in one way or another. From Dusk Til Dawn is a perfect example of this: the general consensus is that the first half of the movie with the gangster brothers is superior to the vampire action second half. The two halves are so distinct that they seemingly have little to do with each other and many people wished the whole movie was just about the gangster brothers. Sinners does not suffer from this problem. It does not feel uneven or disjointed. All of the character work and relationships of the first half of the movie are not thrown out for the second half. The actions and fates of the characters are informed by everything that has come before. Coogler’s Oscar nominated original screenplay never goes on autopilot. 

The marketing was secretive about just what specific type of horror faced the characters. Yet, it was never meant to be a secret, and certainly isn’t now, that this is a vampire movie. The film itself only speaks of evil and devil in vague terms at first. Aside from some quick imagery at the beginning, nothing supernatural happens for the first 40 minutes, but Sinners is not hiding that it is a horror movie. It takes its time getting to the horror but it does not waste that time. 

A prologue tells us how there can be people so gifted at making music that it conjures spirits of the past and the future and it can also attract evil. Sammie “Preacherboy” is such a person. The film's signature sequence of has Preacherboy’s music fulfilling the promise of the prologue in a dazzling and transcendent scene that should not work, that would be silly and pretentious in a lesser movie, but all of the right notes are hit in just the right way and the result is movie magic. 

Preacherboy is also the lynchpin between the story of the brothers and their nightclub and the assault of vampires who are drawn by his music. The mysterious party crashers are led by Remmick (Jack O'Connell), who also plays and enjoys music and speaks about equality and unity, about relieving pain and saving people. The best villains never see themselves as villains but Remmick only barely conceals his sinister and monstrous nature. More than victims and blood, he seeks to consume an entire person and their gifts and background and culture. The vampires have a collective mind, but it is clear that Remmick’s clan is not a round table.

Michael B. Jordan makes playing twins seem easy. It helps that they are dressed similarly but distinctly (Smoke wears blue; Stack wears red) and after their introduction they spend time apart allowing their personalities to grow. Jordan’s performance is what distinguishes the twins. It is no surprise he has earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination. It is also no surprise that the other standout performance comes from Delroy Lindo as Delta Slim, a drunken blues musician whose drunkenness and weary face show the pain and tribulations he has endured. Lindo has earned a Supporting Actor nomination, surprisingly the first of his long and impressive career. 

Sinners fits nicely under the pretentious term “elevated horror” that gets applied to arthouse horror films that receive awards and are liked by serious, scholarly critics. This is an “elevated horror” movie in the same way that Leonard Maltin describes the Astaire/Rogers musicals of the 1930’s as escapism that elevates the soul. The truth is that Sinners is a great movie whether you want to analyze it for themes and subtext or want to watch a tense, bloody vampire movie. Ryan Coogler made a horror movie that exceeds all expectations, as a horror fan I can’t ask for more than that. 

Sinners is streaming on HBOmax.

Nominees: Zinzi Coogler, Sev Ohanian, Ryan Coogler

Director: Ryan Coogler Screenplay: Ryan Coogler Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, Miles Caton, Jack O'Connell, Wunmi Mosaku, Delroy Lindo Production Company: Proximity Media Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures Release Date: April 18th, 2025 Total Nominations: 16, including Best Picture Other Nominations: Actor-Michael B. Jordan; Director-Ryan Coogler; Original Screenplay-Ryan Coogler; Supporting Actor-Delroy Lindo; Supporting Actress-Wunmi Mosaku; Cinematography-Autumn Durald Arkapaw; Production Design-Hannah Beachler (production designer), Monique Champagne (set decorator); Costume Design-Ruth E. Carter; Editing-Michael P. Shawver; Makeup and Hairstyling-Ken Diaz, Michael Fontaine, Shunika Terry; Original Score-Ludwig Göransson; Original Song-"I Lied to You", music and lyrics by-Ludwig Göransson, Raphael Saadiq; Sound-Chris Welcker, Benjamin A. Burtt, Felipe Pacheco, Brandon Proctor, Steve Boeddeker; Visual Effects-Michael Ralla, Espen Nordahl, Guido Wolter, Donnie Dean; Casting-Francine Maisler