Before I bang on about my film of 2025 so far (SINNERS: OMFG) I feel SUPER-BAD that last week’s Projector was an FTD (fail to deliver - classic old newsroom slammer) and I hate to FTD!! I’ve had to do actual work for actual money to pay the actual damn mortgage and while this is life in the fast lane of the freelancer it hurts my heart. SO please accept my humble apologies my sweet Projector Posse.
One of these fine days I will drum up the sheer audacity to launch a paid version to accompany this free one, so I can afford to devote more time to telling cool stories of cool kiwi and international filmmakers and storytellers and of course reviewing all the new releases for you lot - my fab film fam!! But until then, thanks for your support and for reading The Projector when she lands 🎬🍿
Now - onwards, it’s SINNERS TIME!
NEW RELEASE
Sinners (R16)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
5 FLIPPEN STARS
Where to start. Honestly, I don’t even know.
I went in expecting to watch a Ryan Coogler vampire flick with Michael B. Jordan on double duty playing twins (sure why not). What I got was an absolute BOLTER of a film, a ride so intense I was still pinned to my seat as the actual lights went up (do not under any circumstances leave the cinema until the final FINAL credits have rolled).
So the story? 1930s-era Jim Crow South, the story plays out over one day - and more pivotally - one NIGHT as we follow the return of “the twins” Smoke and Stack (both played by Michael B. Jordon) to their hometown of Clarksdale Mississippi with cash in their bag, booze in the boot, ready to open their own juke joint. They collect their cousin Sammie (newcomer Miles Caton STUNS) and his guitar, then set about collecting the rest of the band starting with drunk harmonica king Delta Slim (played by the deliriously delicious Delroy Lindo). The gathering continues, and with friends, lovers and family in tow, their newly purchased old mill will become a hive of opening night prep. By the time the doors are thrown open this juke joint is JUMPING.
And that’s when this fever dream of a film really kicks off.
Part allegory, part fantasy, part opera, part horror (well many parts horror in fairness). Race, redemption, revenge, religion, rapture - and vampires - all wrapped up in the Blues.
I left the cinema on such a goddamn high - in love with almost every single character and for different reasons, and amidst all the unexpected horniness and the jump scares and the buckets of blood there was the music - THE MUSIC - transforming this into a religious experience, the entire story playing out on the bedrock of the score melding the emotional devastation, moral provocation and the aesthetic swoonage into one unholy cinematic cocktail. When a film gets under your skin like this, it doesn’t just feel like entertainment, it feels like a reckoning.
OMG ha ha I really am losing my mind listen to me! I love love LOVE it when a movie makes me FEEL all the things!! Please go see it and bear witness so you can tell me I’m not losing my mind and that you all loved it too. It’s on release RIGHT now in time for this stormy long weekend, go forth Sinners!
POST-SCRIPT
Preferably once you’ve already watched Sinners, read this brilliant LA Times piece on the incredible long-time relationship between double Oscar-winning composer and musician Ludwig Göransson and Ryan Coogler and how together they crafted the story of Sinners to the beats of the killer score.
NEW RELEASE
Warfare (R16)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Did you see Alex Garland’s Civil War in cinemas last year? Remember the phenomenal sound design of that film? How it made you feel like you had just been SHOT, the gunfire felt so real? Well strap in for his latest film as Garland swaps the fictional urban warfare of Civil War for the actual urban Warfare of the streets of Ramadi, Iraq.
Based on the memories of the soldiers who survived this mission, we follow this team of navy seals into a home on a quiet suburban street, setting up a surveillance operation monitoring insurgents across the road.
It’s in these early quiet moments playing out in real time, that we come to know the men; their tasks, their skills, their relationships with one another. Of course, once we feel entirely embedded with these soldiers, that’s when this op goes south, and the real horrors of war become our cinematic reality. And I promise you, it really does feel horrifyingly real.
Garland recruits an excellent cast of up and comers from the four corners; Brits Joseph Quinn, Will Poulter, Finn Bennett and Kit Connor plus a little bit Brit Cosmo Jarvis, alongside Americans Taylor John Smith and D-Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai and Brazilian Henrique Zaga among others. They deliver on all fronts in what was clearly an incredibly demanding shoot.
This is a filmmaking feat but CRIKEY it’s a hard watch (and an even harder listen). Know what you’re signing up for, knowing it’s high impact and on many levels. And if you’re up for it, there’s very little to disappoint.
MEANTIME, it’s been a baller of a few weeks for bingeing our butts off! It felt like the entire planet (my algorithm would have me believe) was helplessly obsessing over The White Lotus grand finale then we barrelled straight into the new season of The Last Of Us! Somehow I also managed to make my way through half of the soon-to-drop second season of Andor (I ADORE THIS SHOW) and a goodly portion of the final season of The Handmaid’s Tale (what epic and increasingly prescient storytelling this has been - all hail Margaret Atwood and Elizabeth Moss).
And along with the sweet treat of chatting to a select gathering Sydney-side of The White Lotus cast I also got to sit down with the divine Bella Ramsey and it was so so good!
Dive into the full chat below, you’ll fall in love with them as much as I did :)
Ep 2 coming Monday yeah baby - no spoilers from me but GIRD YOUR LOINS it’s one of the best hours of telly I’ve seen in recent memory.
Before I go - jumped onto the TVNZ Breakfast couch with the fab Melissa Stokes and we managed to cram a tonne of chat into our slot! I talk more on Warfare and the insanity of The Minecraft Movie global domination, and kicked it off with Rami Malek in The Amateur which is also on release.
Sooooo many choices for our storm-addled long Easter Weekend - perfect indoors entertainment on offer either at your local cinema or from your own sofa!
And just as I am about to hit PUBLISH: lookie here: the latest episode of Lights, Camera, Kōrero - our New Zealand Film Commission podcast - has just landed on Spotify and YouTube for your ears! Big chonky topic too: AI and the impact on the screen industry - insta link below…
Happy Easter y’all! I hereby promise to be a better Projector provider ;)
And remember: cinema is LIFE!
KRxx
Sinners it is! I think I'll bask in it's glory alone with that review. Can't have any distractions. 🥳 Ka rawe! Kia pai to mahi!!
Think I'll take myself off to see Sinners after that review, thanks Kate! Saw shorts on tv & thought to myself...hmm...that looks interesting!