I don’t do many opening-day movie reviews anymore, but old habits die hard. I still keep up. I still watch. Maybe not at every Thursday-night sneak or Friday matinee, but steadily, curiously, and with the same notebook in hand.

This isn’t a comprehensive list — I haven’t seen everything, and won’t have a fully informed take until the end of the year, when the dust settles and the art-house stragglers get their chance. This is an impressionistic tally of what’s landed strongest so far in 2025. Some films are big and noisy, others small and strange.

Call it a mid-year check-in, tradition I haven’t quite managed to let go of.

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1. “Sinners” (Ryan Coogler)

A genre-blending Southern Gothic horror-musical set in 1932 Mississippi. Michael B. Jordan stars in dual roles as twin brothers who open a juke joint, only to confront a supernatural threat. Coogler finds American mythos in the Delta mud, crafting a layered tale about guilt, redemption, and the devil you dance with. It’s as if Robert Johnson’s crossroads legend were staged by Brecht with a trap kit in the pit.

Where to watch: Available for digital purchase and rental on platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home.

2. “The Phoenician Scheme” (Wes Anderson)

Anderson’s latest confection of symmetry and melancholy is an espionage black comedy that is both featherweight and devastating. Benicio del Toro plays Zsa-zsa Korda, a wealthy industrialist who emerges from a coma into a world subtly askew. The visuals dazzle — of course they do — but there’s ache........

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