Sinners was my favorite movie of 2025, with The Long Walk and Marty Supreme close behind. One Battle After Another was decent, but I don’t think it’s Best Picture quality and found it meandering, although that’s true of most of Paul Thomas Anderson’s films. Unfortunately Ryan Coogler, Micheal B. Jordan and Wunmi Mosaku lost in the major categories at the Critics Choice Awards last night, although Sinners took home Best Casting/Ensemble and Ryan Coogler won Best Original Screenplay. Plus Miles Canton got the first award of the night, Best Young Actor. He’s only 20 I can’t believe it. Although Timothee Chalamet was excellent in Marty Supreme, Michael B. Jordan convincingly played two characters! That’s got to count for something.
As Delroy Lindo said on stage, Michael B. Jordan and Ryan Coogler are both under 40 years old. They have plenty of time, although I’m annoyed that this isn’t their time, with this phenomenal film.
Wunmi Mosaku was in a “Zac Posen gown created in the Gap Studio.” I know people think he’s basic but I love Zac Posen’s looks on the red carpet. The ombre trailing sides on this are exquisite and her hair, makeup and jewelry are prefect. Wunmi has been on my radar since Lovecraft Country and I want to see her in more things.
Here are some of the cast with their casting director, Francine Maisler. Hailee Steinfeld is pregnant and I suspect that’s why she skipped the ceremony last night. There’s a Achievement in Casting award for the Oscars this year so hopefully Sinners will take that home. I’m still crossing my fingers for Best Picture though!
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Michael B. Jordan with his glamorous mom!
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Sinners is my pick for Best Picture
Same. OBAO is also good. But I’d put Sinners slightly ahead.
As a GenX Black 🇺🇸 former “Cinemaphile” who NEVA missed an Academy Award live broadcast from 1975 until 2015…with the “Oscar So White” campaign coupled with 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬 Trump running for POTUS…and the majority of 🇺🇸regresding socially…humanely & politically😮…I realized I can no longer LOVE an industry (or anything else😕) that ACTIVELY shows me…AD NASEUM…that it will NEVA 🥰 me back…
And THAT realization…THAT…acceptance breaks my 💔
GenX here too and like you celebrated the Oscars every year. Parties, champagne, etc. At some point, I stopped caring. It was more gradual as my tastes turned from movies to streaming, but Oscars so White and simply the better characters and representation in streaming turned me off completely to Hollywood.
But I LOVE solid horror and dystopian films. I’m fully team Sinners this season. (The Long Walk is a brilliant adaptation of one of my favorite novels, but Sinners IMO has more elements of Oscar worthiness, including costumes!)
I 🥰 “Sinners” so much…that it is LITERALLY in my ❤️…really a perfect movie…A FULL emotional & psychological & visual meal❣️
It’s Barbie all over again. These awards shows are once again pointedly ignoring films that market themselves to audiences based on the film being actually good and fun to watch. Seems they are only interested in movies that build themselves up as being worthy of awards from the moment they are announced.
It reminds me of how Barbie was received as well. There was so much incredulity that it wasn’t loved by the industry as much as the public was behind it. One of the comments that resonated with me was how big a swing it was and then it HIT but it wasn’t rewarded/ awarded. I wish Michael B Jordan didn’t want it so bad because it’s going to hurt more when he is snubbed
We have to remember that Barbie was about women and starred women. That was never going to be a serious Oscar thing.
And Barbie was put in the “it’s a genre/novelty film” slot as well, which is often an Oscar death sentence.
Racists ended our democracy.
Nothing surprises me.
Young white boy in a movie a few people will think is brilliant- all the awards.
Across the board brilliant film in every category, written and directed and starring black people.
Well- you can have a few *token* awards.
Sinners was brilliant.
Hollywood, for all its “liberal” “statements” is racist.
⬆️THIS!
Remember when SNL absolutely nailed it with the Oscar going to “voice on the phone” rather than the Black leading man?
Sinners was brilliant and what was wonderful about the experience is how all the cinephiles came out to breakdown the various technical aspects and artistic meanings in mainstream social media and media. No other film this year had that type of reaction. The closest was Weapons but let’s be real the ground level marketing shifted to “look a horror film by white people to oppose SInners” and OBAA release commentary was about how mid and underwhelming it was, how it appeared to have so many blind spots and the obvious racist tropes.
I didn’t get the hype about Weapons. It’s a completely mid film that offers nothing new? Amy Madigon’s character was off the charts hilarious creepy, but the movie itself was nothing special.
@mightymolly agree about Weapons. The first 10mins of Weapons was really great but it fell off story wise. It was a movie that had pop of interesting moments and yeah Amy Madigon’s performance was peak.
💯
I tend to avoid these discussions but when a POC wins an acting award, there’s always the anti-DEI contingent crying foul. That bothers me to no end as does the argument that a POC losing an award is because of racism. Why? Because a POC win doesn’t signal the end of racism. I think Ethan Hawke gave a great performance but he’s still a white guy. In other words someone is always going to be disappointed.
I really liked Sinners in the beginning. I thought all the nods to African mysticism and folklore were really interesting. I thought the commentary on white people culture-vulturing virtually every aspect of black culture was also really interesting. But all this seemed to fall by the wayside for me in the third act when it devolved into a paint-by-numbers monster flick. It felt like they were building up all these really interesting ideas that didn’t go anywhere.
I also tend to the Michael B. Jordan tends to play himself in every role. To me, he was the weak link in the cast. Delroy Lindo was wonderful, as was Mosaku, who looked INCREDIBLE.
I agree with every word of this.
I think they are mad because Ryan Coogler has shown them what he is worth and has demanded to be compensated that way. The industry is mad that instead of begging them for large budget, he’s bootstrapping and delivering those films to make huge box office hits. The anger at the fact that Sinner belongs to him after 15-25 years when no other white producers thought of demanding such a thing in their contract, is mind blowing. He contradicts what the industry and maga are selling. He’s successful, intelligent, creative, and bankable. Sinners should be swiping awards season.
I agree with this. He delivered a huge hit on a moderate budget and then will get the rights to the movie in a few years. He’s delivered two movies that made almost two billion dollars as well as movies that were critical successes and they want to treat him like he’s a nobody just starting out.
And I hope Coogler’s agent/management is more ferocious than Godzilla, Jaws, Kong, and Meg put together, for it’s a sure bet the industry will have its axe out for him forever. Nothing that town hates more than the “wrong people” beating it at its own game.
Agreed–Hollywood is pissed he got this deal. The nerve of him, thinking he ranks up there with Christopher Nolan, right? 🙄😡🤮
Micheal B. Jordan’s look during the ceremony was that look you give when you know some fuckery is going on. I will say this Sinners from beginning to end is absolutely masterful. The 3rd act is far from paint by numbers. From the shaking hands and Smoke being unable to roll his cigarette, the breaking down realization that his brother will no longer be around to help roll, the rising sun as the klan rolls in, and the use of reflection, Miles Canton performance in the river with his guitar. The set-up to deal with human monsters, the Klan, Wunmi telling him he cannot hold the baby and not to get any “smoke” on the baby, the way the light catches in that scene the look of relief when Smoke released himself to hold his baby. The symbolism of white in that scene (we wear white in the South for funerals). Was all masterfully done and that was all achieved in the last 20 minutes of the film. MBJ is a radically difference character, when we say he plays 2.5 characters he does so in cadence, movements, vocal stylings, and aura. But I’m 42. I came up in the age of Spike Lee. I already knew back in April what was going to happen with Sinners come awards season and it is unfolding as it always does.
Like you, I never had any delusions that Sinners would get the recognition it deserves. I’ve got a few years on you, and year after year, Hollywood proudly lives up to its racist reputation. It’s as though they simply can’t help themselves, not even for PR purposes.
Oh-so-white Hollywood shows its ugly ass again. People of color cannot expect their fair due ever in that industry. Mediocre whiteness will beat out Black Excellence every time.
Every.single.time. OBAA landed with a dud for a reason. The boots on the ground SM bots campaign has been very racist, which is fitting considering how that movie handled certain themes and portrayals. I would say it’s astounding but honestly, it’s just status quo.
What if I thought both Sinners AND OBAA were mid?
If those are your thoughts on both films, then own it. There are no wrong answers.
@Grant if those are your thoughts you are free to have them.
No surprise–the same thing happened with Black Panther. Once the “real” (ie Eurocentric or close to it) Oscar-bait comes out, innovative African-American films get shafted every single time.
Straight Outta Compton was another example of up against an array of “Hollywood liberal” films (either the subject matter or the actors or both – and somehow Leo is always in the mix) but was just transparently snubbed. Because I was a teen during most of the major events of the film and it really resonated with me, I think that was my last time ever caring about the Oscars, although the shine had long since faded for me.
Yep. Also Do The Right Thing, Malcolm X, Black Panther…same as it ever was with Hollywood fuckery…
Spike Lee only won an Oscar fairly recently (for Best Screenplay?) after DECADES of making great movies and documentaries. Let’s call it what it is: racism? white privilege?
My husband worked on The Long Walk!
(That’s all I got)
Sorry, Timothee fans. Michael B. Jordan was robbed. There’s a lot to be said every year about winter releases getting passed over for awards and it will be an absolute travesty if this film and its stars don’t sweep at the Oscars. Oscars are sometimes a little political, and Sinners absolutely saved the box office in 2025.
I hated Marty Supreme. The acting was all good but it was an obnoxious watch for me, to the point that I regret not walking out. Sinners was amazing though. It had everything: great acting, cinematic settings, originality. It should get all the awards.