Latest news with #Sinners
Forbes
20 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
What ‘Sinners' And Juneteenth Reveal About America's Delayed Reckonings
Michael B. Jordan attends the European premiere of "Sinners" at Cineworld Leicester Square in ... More London, England. This Juneteenth, AMC theaters across metro Atlanta will screen Sinners and preview 40 Acres, two scalding Black films that weren't made to entertain but to indict. Both films boldly probe the costs of silence, the aftermath of racial betrayal and the impossibility of justice arriving on time. AMC's decision to offer discounted screenings is part marketing, part reckoning—a nod to the uncomfortable truth that Juneteenth remains unfinished business. There's something quietly unnerving about watching Ryan Coogler's Sinners on Juneteenth—not because the film misreads the moment, but because it affirms a truth the holiday itself has always carried: in America, freedom is rarely immediate, and justice almost always arrives late. Sinners premiered to critical acclaim and commercial success earlier this year, grossing $362 million worldwide, making it the eighth-highest-grossing film of 2025. Today, AMC theaters nationwide are offering $5 screenings of Sinners and the post-apocalyptic thriller 40 Acres as part of their Juneteenth programming. This is not a coincidence but appears to be a quiet act of curation since both films address the consequences of freedom that was promised but never fully delivered. In Sinners, Michael B. Jordan portrays twin brothers returning to the Mississippi Delta after serving in World War I, backed by Northern ambition and just enough capital to open a juke joint. They've outrun the trap of sharecropping, but what greets them back home is more sinister than poverty: white vampires offering eternal life on the condition of total submission. It was a different kind of bondage—one with better marketing but the same brutal terms. The metaphor isn't subtle, nor should it be. The fact is, Sinners is not about sin in the religious sense but more about America's most significant secular violation: its refusal to face itself. The plot is intimate but also represents a modern political parable of what happens when accountability is delayed so long that it begins to feel like mercy. If that sounds familiar, then it should because that's what Juneteenth is: a national lesson in the cost of delay. On June 19, 1865, two and a half years after Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to inform enslaved people they were free. In the gap between law and emancipation, white landowners reaped profits, and Black families remained in bondage, unaware of the paper promises made in Washington. Freedom, technically granted, was functionally withheld. And the aftershocks still inform the framework of our economy, legal system and cultural memory. A Juneteenth flag flies on a float during the 45th annual Juneteenth National Independence Day ... More celebrations in Galveston, Texas. This pattern of delayed justice didn't end with emancipation but became ingrained in the framework of American policymaking, where the distance between what's promised and what's delivered often benefits those already positioned to win. Take housing. The GI Bill, often praised as a cornerstone of the American middle class, largely bypassed Black veterans. The Federal Housing Administration underwrote millions of home loans in the 20th century, just not in Black neighborhoods. Redlining wasn't a policy failure—it was a policy, full stop. The consequences are measurable: the racial wealth gap today remains nearly as wide as it was in 1968. Coogler has called Sinners a tribute to his Uncle James, a Mississippi bluesman who passed away during the filming of Creed. That lineage pulses through the film's juke joint scenes, where music, memory and defiance converge. And this is where the film's business lessons become most pointed. The juke joint that Jordan's characters establish is an ecosystem that controls space, talent and revenue streams. They've created what economists call 'economic sovereignty': the ability to generate wealth within their community rather than simply participating in someone else's. Discounted tickets and celebratory panels are nice. But reckoning demands more. It demands that we interrogate the original harm and the infrastructure that made it possible. That's partly why AMC's decision to screen Sinners and 40 Acres is so powerful: these films refuse to let America look away. 40 Acres—a pointed satire—revisits the failed promise of reparations with razor-sharp wit and historical fluency. It reminds us that the unpaid debt is not just financial but political and very much still on the books. J. E. Clark, a Black business owner, stands in his pineapple farm in Eatonville, Fla., 1907. For today's business leaders, the lesson isn't abstract. The companies that will define the next decade are those building new systems rather than retrofitting old ones, and the most successful diversity initiatives follow similar logic by not trying to make exclusionary systems more inclusive but creating inclusive systems from the ground up. AMC's $5 Juneteenth screenings represent more than a programming strategy; they're a recognition that liberation requires economic accessibility. But the real power of pairing Sinners and 40 Acres lies in their shared vision, one that recognizes that authentic freedom isn't granted by existing institutions but created despite them. A century and a half after Union troops reached Galveston, that choice between accommodation and self-empowerment remains the defining challenge for anyone who is serious about justice. The vampires in Coogler's film promise eternal life through submission. The freed choose mortal struggle through self-determination, and in boardrooms, classrooms, and ballot boxes, that same choice presents itself. The question is no longer whether freedom is possible—but whether we're brave enough to insist on it.
New Indian Express
a day ago
- Entertainment
- New Indian Express
The secret sauce behind success of Sinners and Parasite (and why Bollywood's too scared to try)
Think of yourself as a rich producer hearing a pitch for a film titled Rakshash Bhoomi. It is set in the 1990s rural Maharashtra, where Dalit twins, Bhima and Arjuna, ex-Mumbai gangsters, return home. They build Ambedkar Chetna Kendra – a cultural hub bursting with Ambedkarite activism during the day, and by night, turns into a musical hub with raw Bhim Rap spun by their cousin Ravidas. Their defiant music wakes a vampirish Rakshash who turns anyone he bites into his thralls. One harrowing night, the community battles both supernatural terror and human hatred. Bhima and Arjuna fight both types of demons and sacrifice themselves so Ravidas can survive, to tell the story of resistance. Would you give money to make this film? If you answer no, congratulations, you're fit to be a Bollywood producer. Because if this story were indeed pitched to a Bolly suit, he'd have politely muttered: 'too intellectual,' or worse: 'Make it cheap, it's got that OTT vibe,' without realising Rakshasha Bhoomi is nothing but my Dalit-history inspired rejigging of Ryan Coogler's global blockbuster Sinners where I've swapped Jim Crow American South for Maharashtra's caste battlegrounds, replacing vampires with Rakshashs feeding on prejudice. They'd have missed the point of one of the most delicious templates in cinema history, one that has not only made billions ($360 million plus for Sinners) but has also given films that have stood the test of time. This template of weaving intense truth into spectacle, layering social critique with visceral horror, thrill or action, began with a film that continues to inspire: Akira Kurosawa's High and Low. My first viewing of this 1963 masterpiece in 2007 left me speechless. A businessman agonises about paying ransom to a kidnapper who's mistakenly kidnapped his chauffeur's son, instead of his own. The kidnapper is caught after an edge-of-the-seat chase. Case closed, film over. Right? Nope! Not for Kurosawa, because here, as with his other films, he was merely using the mask of a thriller to hold up a synecdoche to the times, a lone crisis exposing the festering rot of post-war Japanese society. Though called High and Low in English, its original name, Tengoku to Jigoku, translates to Heaven and Hell. The businessman's hilltop mansion is heaven, while the sweltering, desperate slums below is hell. Though Kurosawa's genius blocking of actors (you don't even realise that the first half is in one house) and one colour scene in an entirely black and white film is talked about a lot, its real genius was its refusal to see life and people in black and white. The kidnapper wasn't a cartoonish villain whose vanquishing would quell your lust for justice. Nope! He was the product of that disparity, a living, breathing human affected by the hell he was living in. And the hero, my favourite actor Toshiro Mifune, has equally questionable morals but ultimately does the right thing, including going to the kidnapper to try and figure out 'why'. The film mirrored life's messy greys, a shock for someone like me who had grown up watching Bollywood's moral absolutes. Life is complicated. And cinema can also be complicated, like High and Low and the other Kurosawa gut-punch about the subjective nature of truth – Rashomon. Despite this, that film was such a good thriller that to date, it is referenced as one of the best police procedurals ever, having inspired and continued to inspire a whole host of cop films and series. Yet, while those inspirations only took the actual template of the film in a piecemeal way, those who did understand the full essence of what Kurosawa was trying to do with the film have given birth to their own modern masterpieces. One of the greatest proponents of that template is the modern master Boon Joon-ho. First with the Chris Evans starrer Snowpiercer, and most beautifully with Parasite, Joon-ho literally climbs Kurosawa's hill. Like Kurosawa takes two men – one on a hill, the other below it, Joon-ho takes two contrasting families – the wealthy Park family's sleek, sun-drenched home is contrasted with the Kims' damp, basement home, becoming a live wire of class warfare and buzzes with the same high voltage of High and Low. Ryan Coogler's Sinners scores an ace on this template, dividing itself, like Kurosawa's film, into two halves. The first immerses us in the oppressive reality of the 1930s Jim Crow South, the societal hell festering with racism and trauma. The second half is the vampire attack. Like Kurosawa, Coogler humanises his monsters; his vampires aren't mindless zombies but thinking, feeling, almost tragic parasites inheriting the memories and even artistry of the bodies they inhabit. What they refuse to inherit is the racism, the societal violence inside them. Nah! They prefer the biting kind of violence, one that turns humans into their kind, not the hack, shoot and burn of racists. Indeed, it is these monsters who warn the humans of an imminent attack, proving that, in a way, they are better than those heartless, racist monsters. This is the theme I have been struggling to use in crafting a film, where you shame humans by showing that monsters can be better than despicable humans. I found this in a Bhupen Hazarika song, 'Manuhe Manuhor Baabe' (Humans for humans' sake), whose most poignant line translates to: 'If humans do not become humane, monsters will never become so; And if demons do become humane, who should be ashamed then, brother.' Coogler manages that; the vampires in his films have more decency, more humanity than many 'humans' who judge people simply on the colour of their skin. This brings me to Bollywood's blindspot. People are stories. And India, with the world's largest population, naturally, has the most stories. And our epics? Oh, they are coloured in delicious shades of grey – Mahabharata is full of characters with dubious morals, and so is Ramayana – at least the versions before Ramcharitmanas. And living in this hellscape of a nation, that is both beautiful and grotesque at the same time, where the cost of life is so cheap that an easily fillable pothole in Asia's richest municipality and one of the world's richest cities, Mumbai, can kill me, how is it that we can't create our own High and Low, Sinners, or Parasite? Partly because Bollywood is stuck in escapism, but also because we often treat social realism and genre (horror, action, thriller, etc.) separately. We either get powerful social commentary in films like Do Bigha Zamin and Sairat or brainless fares like Dhamaal and the unending Housefull series. The idea that a brilliant critique of patriarchy, that is Stree, or an exposition of the horrors of greed, that is Tumbbad, can succeed, is seen as an exception, not a template. Coogler's Sinners or its bastardised version, Rakshash Bhoomi, would make producers squirm. Dalit/racism, plus horror, plus music – that's too niche, too intense, which can work only in OTT if made cheap according to them. They miss the point of a High and Low, Parasite and Sinners – spectacle mixed with substance as the recipe for blockbusters. Sinners ruled the box office because their layers resonated with people, not despite them. And what about the aficionados, the artsy makers? I know a lot of them. They mean well, and we have great discussions. But they, too, are married to their corner of the binary. They want to craft 'world cinema' but equate it with boring, staid stories where the narrative is like a pond's stagnant water, rather than a river's flowing torrent. Like Bollywood, they too see the success of films with substance as an exception and hence do not even consider crafting the chase of a High and Low, the thrill of a Sinners, the wicked satire of a Parasite. I suspect it is partly because they equate slow-moving stories to resistance against commercial fare. But a film doesn't have to be this or that. A film need not be an empty spectacle, or a sleepy, boring burn. The contrast of a High and Low could offer the antidote. This contrast frames societal divisions visually and structurally, like in Parasite and Sinners. Genre is a socially conscious filmmaker's Trojan horse – horror, thriller, action, sci-fi are the perfect vessels to smuggle in social critique (remember Get Out). And maybe splitting the halves like in High and Low and Sinners could work to have the distinct halves explore cause and effect, highs and lows. The world isn't simple. Our stories shouldn't be either. Morals, like people, are never black and white. Our films shouldn't be either. We have got to make films that bleed truth, not just blood. Audiences are hungry for more than popcorn; they crave meaning. Give it to them paced in a beat they can dance to, and a bite that leaves a mark. Not on the body. But on the conscience, on the soul.
See - Sada Elbalad
a day ago
- Entertainment
- See - Sada Elbalad
"Final Destination Bloodlines" Hits Digital as New Blu-ray Collection Releasing in July
Yara Sameh "Final Destination" recently returned with a new generation of unlucky folks dying one by one in ways that will haunt you forever. Bloodlines, the sixth movie in the franchise and the first new addition since 2011, was released in theaters on May 16 and has since grossed over $270 million globally. There's nothing quite like seeing elaborate death traps on the big screen, but if you've been waiting to watch the new slasher movie in the comfort of your own home, you're in luck. "Final Destination Bloodlines" is now available to rent or buy from digital platforms with a 4K steelbook, and a new Final Destination Blu-ray collection is releasing next month. The move to digital comes almost exactly four weeks after the movie's original release in theaters. Despite recent opposition from organizations like Cinema United, we're still seeing the continued post-pandemic and heavily streaming-influenced trend of shortened theatrical release windows. Nonetheless, "Final Destination Bloodlines" has continued to see success at the box office alongside positive reviews. The movie is slowly creeping up the list of highest-grossing horror movies of all time, likely overtaking Silence of the Lambs' spot by the end of the week. "Sinners", another recent release still showing in theaters, has also been climbing up that list, and could even break into the top 10. Safe to say, 2025 is shaping up to be a solid year for horror at the box office. "Final Destination Bloodlines" will likely join the rest of the Final Destination franchise on HBO Max at one point or another. However, at the time of the digital release, we've yet to get any specific information on the streaming timeline. Most Warner Bros. movies land on the streaming service within three months of their initial release date, so "Final Destination Bloodlines" may land on HBO Max by mid-September. "Final Destination Bloodlines" is getting its own limited edition 4K steelbook with a fresh set of bonus features, including audio commentary by the film's directors, Adam Stein & Zach Lipovsky, and a reflection from the late Tony Todd on 'The Legacy of Bludworth.' For fans of the full franchise, there's also a new six-movie Final Destination collection up for preorder. Every existing movie's special features are included on each disc, and the collection is set to release on the same day as the Bloodlines steelbook, July 22. read more New Tourism Route To Launch in Old Cairo Ahmed El Sakka-Led Play 'Sayidati Al Jamila' to Be Staged in KSA on Dec. 6 Mandy Moore Joins Season 2 of "Dr. Death" Anthology Series Don't Miss These Movies at 44th Cairo Int'l Film Festival Today Amr Diab to Headline KSA's MDLBEAST Soundstorm 2022 Festival Arts & Culture Mai Omar Stuns in Latest Instagram Photos Arts & Culture "The Flash" to End with Season 9 Arts & Culture Ministry of Culture Organizes four day Children's Film Festival Arts & Culture Canadian PM wishes Muslims Eid-al-Adha News China Launches Largest Ever Aircraft Carrier Sports Former Al Zamalek Player Ibrahim Shika Passes away after Long Battle with Cancer Lifestyle Get to Know 2025 Eid Al Adha Prayer Times in Egypt Business Fear & Greed Index Plummets to Lowest Level Ever Recorded amid Global Trade War Arts & Culture Zahi Hawass: Claims of Columns Beneath the Pyramid of Khafre Are Lies News Flights suspended at Port Sudan Airport after Drone Attacks Videos & Features Video: Trending Lifestyle TikToker Valeria Márquez Shot Dead during Live Stream News Shell Unveils Cost-Cutting, LNG Growth Plan Technology 50-Year Soviet Spacecraft 'Kosmos 482' Crashes into Indian Ocean News 3 Killed in Shooting Attack in Thailand
Perth Now
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
Damson Idris addresses Black Panther casting rumours
Damson Idris has neither confirmed nor denied he has been cast as Black Panther. Following the passing of the previous T'Challa actor Chadwick Bosemen in 2020, the F1 star, 33, has been linked to the Marvel superhero, and Idris has now addressed the rumours he has taken on the role for the third Black Panther movie. During an appearance on the Today show, presenter Craig Melvin asked Idris if he had spoken to Marvel about becoming the next Black Panther, to which the actor said: 'Yes, no!' The Snowfall star was then quizzed on if he would accept an offer to play Black Panther, to which Idris simply replied: 'Yes!' Bosemen had portrayed T'Challa in Ryan Coogler's 2018 blockbuster Black Panther, and had also appeared elsewhere in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) with 2016's Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War in 2018 and Avengers: Endgame in 2019. After a secret battle with stage III colon cancer, the actor passed away in August 2020 at the age of 43. Following Boseman's death, the 2022 Black Panther sequel, Wakanda Forever, saw the mantle get passed to Letitia Wright - who portrays T'Challa's sister Shuri. Director Ryan Coogler is set to helm a third Black Panther movie, and the filmmaker recently confirmed Denzel Washington would appear in the blockbuster after the actor let slip he was attached to the project. Speaking on the 7 p.m in Brooklyn podcast, the Sinners director said: 'That's a big f*** with it. F*** with it or f*** out of here. You crazy?' Coogler added he was writing an original character for Washington that has not been seen in the Marvel comics. Speaking about Washington's role, he said: 'There's no fiction out there about that.' The director previously said he was 'dying' to work with the Gladiator II star. Speaking on the Nightcap podcast, Coogler said: 'I'm dying to work with Denzel and I'm hoping we can make that happen. I got every intention of working with him in that movie and as long as he's interested - it's going to happen.' Coogler went on to hail Washington a 'living legend and a great mentor'. He added: 'He's all about looking out for us.' The director also teased fans will have 'not long' to wait for the third Black Panther film. Washington had spilled his potential involvement in the next Black Panther flick when he was laying out what his final projects would be before he retired from Hollywood. He told Australia's Today show: 'At this point in my career, I'm only interested in working with the best, I don't know how many more films I will make, probably not that many. I want to do things that I haven't done.' Sharing the roles he had lined up before he sunsetted his acting career, The Equalizer star teased: 'I played Othello at 22, I'm now going to play it at 70. After that, I'm playing Hannibal. After that, I've been talking with Steve McQueen about a film. 'After that, Ryan Coogler is writing a part for me in the next Black Panther. After that, I'm gonna do the film Othello. After that I'm gonna do King Lear. After that, I'm gonna retire.'
Perth Now
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
Tom Rhys Harries signs on to DC's horror flick Clayface
Tom Rhys Harries is to star in Clayface. The 32-year-old actor has beat off competition from the likes of Sinners star Jack O'Connell, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes actor Tom Blyth and 1917's George MacKay for the leading role in DC's upcoming horror movie. Speak No Evil director James Watkins has signed on to helm the project, which is slated to shoot at Warner Bros. Leavesden studio in the UK later this year as it marches towards its September 2026 release date. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Clayface will be a 'stripped down movie', with a budget of approximately $40 million. The flick will reportedly follow a B-movie actor who becomes a walking mound of clay after injecting himself with a mystery substance in an attempt to stay relevant. Watkins will be working from a script written by Doctor Sleep director Mike Flanagan, while The Batman filmmaker Matt Reeves will produce alongside Lynn Harris, and DC co-heads James Gunn and Peter Safran. DC's next movie will be Gunn's Superman, which is set to land in cinemas on 8 July 2025, and will usher in a new cinematic era for the studio. Superman - which stars David Corenswet, Nicholas Hoult, Rachel Brosnahan and Nathan Fillion - will follow a young Clark Kent grapple with his dual identity as he rises to become Earth's protector against a powerful alien threat. As humanity questions its need for a saviour, Superman must prove that hope is his greatest power. Gunn previously teased Corenswet's Man of Steel would 'blow people away' in Superman. During an appearance on a panel at New York Comic Con in October, the Guardians of the Galaxy director said: 'We're deep in the process of editing. David Corenswet is going to f****** blow people away. He is the movie star that everyone just dreams he could possibly be. 'I don't think anyone really understands the depth of this guy's talent dramatically, comedically. He's the best physical action star I've probably ever worked with.' Corenswet's co-star Brosnahan - who will play Superman's love interest Lois Lane - also teased the blockbuster would 'stay true to the comics'. Speaking to Deadline, she said: 'There's a lot of challenges for everybody in all different pockets of the worlds right now. 'And for a lot of the complaints that people have sometimes about superhero movies, at their core, they're about the goodness of people and how good we can be to each other, how the pursuit of truth and justice really are the American way, and that courage and hope can carry us through. 'And so, I feel like this movie really encapsulates all of that. It's a hopeful superhero movie, which I feel like is so true to the comics. So, I'm excited for audiences to see it and hopefully have some fun and enjoy the ride with us.'
