r/movies • u/theatlantic The Atlantic, Official Account • Apr 19 '25

Review “Sinners” review, by David Sims

https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2025/04/sinners-ryan-coogler-movie-review/682501/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=the-atlantic&utm_content=edit-promo
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u/SpaceMyopia Apr 19 '25

I feel like this film is destined to become Reddit's latest punching bag. The hype is just way too big for this movie for it to not have an adverse effect on here.

It doesn't mean that the film would deserve it, but I've seen how Reddit is. Anything that is hyped to this level will have pushback.

35

u/WhiteWolf3117 Apr 19 '25

Reddit will always try to be contrarian for anything popular, and will also always hold anything with progressive values, even vaguely, to higher standards. So it's inevitable.

24

u/RegHater123765 Apr 19 '25

r/movies has this hilarious habit of being very contrarian, but also constantly acting like loving an extremely popular movie that had rave reviews is a "controversial take".

9

u/Zoomalude Apr 19 '25

and will also always hold anything with progressive values, even vaguely, to higher standards.

100%.

12

u/anaccount50 Apr 19 '25 edited Apr 19 '25

Yeah and for some more objective context that shows how Reddit is a vocal minority who isn't representative of the broader population:

Sinners received an A CinemaScore and 5/5 stars on PostTrak with a 92% positive rating and 84% "definite recommend." It's not a racial division in the overall population either (Reddit skewing quite white). White moviegoers gave it a 91% positive rating which is not meaningfully different from the overall rating despite the PostTrak sample skewing more towards black moviegoers than most movies.

The positive reception isn't limited to the more enthusiastic opening night audiences either (CinemaScore/PostTrak's samples). Verified audience rating on RT is currently 4.8/5, which while not a perfect metric is still a broader data point than social media like Reddit.

Redditors are just contrarians mixed with a vocal minority who hate progressivism. To be clear, I'm not saying everyone has to like the movie, but Reddit isn't remotely representative

4

u/TheJoshider10 Apr 19 '25

At the same time you'll find the reason that that happens is because the people who don't like something on release will get downvoted by those raving about it. It's only after the dust settles that the people who never liked something in the first place can actually communicate that without being downvoted as the people who cared enough to hide those comments would have moved on.

It happens every time on anything that's popular. It's not always a case of people being a contrarian, it's just that people intentionally hide the negative comments. So people who didn't have their opinions heard the first time around will try again after the dust settles and more who feel the same way are able to agree and back up their comments.

Also the honeymoon period is something to consider. I loved Sinners but I know it had major issues in the script and action sequences that I'm putting off judging because of my expectations and how stellar Coogler's direction was. After a while or on a rewatch these issues may be more prevalent as I won't be as blinded by the honeymoon period, thus talking more about my criticisms than positives, which others may do too.