We’ve arrived at my favorite season on the blog — my six-week dive into last year’s movies. While I’m a huge music fan, enough to write this blog for 17+ years, my true love is cinema.
Over the next month and a half I’ll tackle 2025’s movie slate from a few different angles. First, I’ll highlight some of my favorite musical moments onscreen, then I’ll name my personal nominees in the top awards categories, and finally I’ll dig into some of my favorite 2025 films and offer up my top ten list.
I’m kicking off the musical moments series with the best of the bunch. This is not just my favorite musical moment in a 2025 film — it’s my favorite scene, period.
Ryan Coogler’s Sinners isn’t a musical but it’s so steeped in music that it may as well be. I’ll have more to say about this movie in coming weeks, but for now I want to highlight its finest moment: a song-and-dance routine that bridges cultures and generations.
Young blues man Sammie is urged to play a song for the crowd assembled at a Deep South juke joint. As he plays, another character (Annie) explains in voiceover that “there are legends of people born with the gift of making music so true it can pierce the veil between life and death. Conjuring spirits from the past… and the future.”
When Annie speaks those last few words, a 70s guitarist enters the shot and the soundtrack thickens with a modern bass thrum. And over the next few minutes, singers and dancers from multiple traditions and eras combine to create an ecstatic symphony.
When I first saw this scene in the theater, I practically levitated out of my seat. It’s a perfect example of a moment only the movies can create, a marriage of visuals and sound that steals your breath and gets your heart pounding.
This transcendent moment leads directly to the film’s dark turn into horror, a potent metaphor for the way Blackness is both worshipped and destroyed.
Something I been wanting to tell you for a long time
It might hurt you, hope you don’t lose your mind
Well, I was just a boy, ’bout eight years old
You threw me a Bible on that Mississippi road
See, I love ya, Papa, you did all you could do
They say the truth hurts, so I lied to you
Yes, I lied to you
I love the blues
Mm-mm
Oh, mm-mm
Hey
Somebody take me in your arms tonight, alright
Somebody take me in your arms tonight
Yeah, yeah
Somebody take me in your arms tonight
Mm-hmm
Oh, mm-mm
Somebody take me in your arms tonight, alright (Hey, yeah)
Somebody take me in your arms tonight, oh (Hey, yeah)
Somеbody take me in your— (Hey, yеah)
[DJ]
New shit!
Preacher Boy!
Sammie Moore!
[SAMMIE]
I hope you can stand it, stand it all
‘Cause what l’m out here doing, you didn’t preach at all
See, I’m full of the blues, holy water too
I know the truth hurts, so I lied to you
So preach on, speak your words
I know the truth hurts
Yes, I lied to you
I love the blues
I love the blues
Meet Me In Montauk 
Great scene from a great movie to kick off your look into the films of 2025.
Really kicking it off with the peak! Sinners was a perfect example of a movie where expectations played a huge role in my eventual feelings on the film. For example, yes, the trailer did give away that certain vital characters turn into vampires. However, the whole musical element of this film and how it in many ways is the focal point of the story was kept secret to me until right before I saw it.
Needless to say, I couldn’t have guessed that this absolutely epic genre bending, screen widening, seat shaking sequence would blow me away the same way it did you and likely every movie lover who sat in a Sinners screening. I’m a longtime Ludwig Görranson fan in the sense that I’ve been singing his praises ever since Childish Gambino’s early work where he is typically the sole producer. It has been a surreal treat watching him grow in prominence and hearing his name mentioned again and again as a musical genius, a thought that I held quite nichely back in the early 2010s.
Miles Caton is a star born in this film and particularly this scene. This is also one of my favorite seasons of the blog and I eagerly await every entry!
I suppose I should’ve mentioned directly that Görranson’s score and musical work on Sinners on full display here is why I brought him up! Another much deserved “Best Score” Oscar on the way hopefully!
Epic scene – certainly a top highlight of the ’25 year in cinema!!
Happy to ring in the wonderful Montauk film review time of the year
Can’t believe I missed this yesterday! Love this time of the year blog. Loved this film mostly because of the music. Great film 👏👏
just want to add that this is a beautifully written review ❤️
Time for musings on movies… yay!
Reading about this scene when seeking spoilers to determine whether I’d be able to handle the horrific instances in the film is what ultimately caused convinced me I had to risk it.
And boy was I glad I did. This is one of my favorite scenes in one of my favorite films of the year.
Great way to kick off the season!