Michael B. Jordan is a sinner.

Bet you might like to join him too, you sinner.

Latham Arneson

Apr 17, 2025

THE QUOTE 🎬 💬

“You're my assistant. Okay? You're supposed to back me up and go get me juiceboxes whenever I tell you.

Now go get me a juicebox!”

hint: not Mike Ditka’s only acting role, but probably his most notable

THINK THOUGHTS 💭

The Minecraft Movie continues to make mad money, largely off the (hard-earned?) dollars of boys and young men.

And if you ask them why they’re so stoked to be yelling “chiiiicken joooockey,” it’s because of, what else, nostalgia. “But they’re so young?!”

But if you’ve been playing a game since your were 8 and you’re 15 now, that’s nearly half your life. And hell, even if you’re 24, you can harken back to the times when you were just a wee lad with your pickaxe, mining the square kingdom, and feel the pangs of your youth.

I’m actually a little surprised Hollywood is this surprised the movie did, and is doing, so well. Then again, I’m not all that surprised, because if there’s one thing Hollywood doesn’t know, it’s what their audiences want.

Kiddingggg (kinda)

NEWSY BITS 👾

‘The Breakfast Club’ Stars Reunite For The First Time Since Film’s Release: “Moved To Have Us All Together”- adorable. btw, it’s been 40 years since the movie came out - Deadline

Tim Burton’s ‘Beetlejuice 3’ Confirmed at Warner Bros. - it was 36 years between 1 and 2, so this is a tad faster. - World of Reel

NOTABLE NEW RELEASE(S) 🎟 & 📺

Sinners

Some people talk about “sinning” as if it was a bad thing.

I mean sure, if you think engaging in a certain set of acts is going to result in your flesh melting off your bones for a period of time that is infinity +1, I guess one could come to that conclusion.

For the rest of us blasphemers, sinning just sounds like a solid Saturday night—though in the 1930’s American south, you can imagine the notion just might have a different tenor.

But damn if Ryan Coogler isn’t going to make it fun before the consequences set in. And instead of the devil pulling everyone down to hell, he might just ask to join the party.

See, this is Coogler’s first non-Creed non-Black Panther movie since his first outing, Fruitvale Station in 2013, and it’s an original story that still looks to combine themes he’s addressed in his other movies, and plenty he hasn’t (music being a big one).

He’s also diving into a genre he hasn’t before in pulpy horror, but critics say he’s still able to create a supremely layered “blockbuster" experience while giving his actors, most notably Michael B. Jordan playing twins, a chance to create characters you’ll actually care about and build a space that feels lived in.

I’m kind of holding back the plot part of the story that is key to the whole, even if the trailer gives it away. But doing so in case you’re still fresh.

Because with the movie sitting at 99% on Rotten Tomatoes and getting praise like,

“As much arthouse as grindhouse, it’s a blood-drenched mix tape that shouldn’t work. But it does, thanks to Coogler’s muscular direction, a terrific cast, enveloping IMAX visuals, body-quaking sound and music that stirs the soul.”

it seems worth your time. So if you can join the party without reading the full metaphorical invite, go right on in.

And don’t even bother knocking. ✊

Watch the Trailer

Out: Friday

Where: Theaters

Details: 2 hrs 17 mins | R | 🍅: 99%

The Wedding Banquet

A remake, but with modern sensibilities and circumstances.

Two gay couples—one set of men (Bowen Yang from SNL and Han Gi-Chan, a South Korean actor), one set of women (Lily Gladstone from Killers of the Flower Moon and Kelly Maria Tran from the new Star Wars trilogy)—each with their own “situations.”

In perfect rom-com style, their problems seem solvable, by mixing them together, which only leads to new and different problems of course.

Because when you setup a fake marriage to get a green card, where the payment for your fake spouse’s involvement is more IVF treatments for her and her partner, but your conservative grandma wants her grandson to do a traditional Korean wedding, it sounds like movie stuff can and will happen. Liiiiiike literally shoving anything that could be “lesbian” back into a physical closet. Or maybe most likely, the grandma, Youn Yuh-jung from Minari, learning to grow and accept a little more.

It all sounds very satisfying, but not with the usual subjects and not even with the usual subject matter. And while that’s becoming less novel, it’s still quite so.

Watch the Trailer

Out: Friday

Where: Limited Theaters

Details: 1 hr 43 mins | R | 🍅: 91%

Movies are better with (good) company.