Sinners and The Pee Pee Poo Poo Man represent the kinds of original films that our theaters should exhibit more of.
Sinners is the hottest, buzziest, and best movie in the country right now, and it was shot in the New Orleans region. As one of the standout New Orleans movies, it showcases the strength of our local film scene. Sure, it may have been brought into our Hollywood South production hub from the outside, but it completely counts as a “local” film, at least in my book. Our skilled crews (krewes) were up for the task of helping director Ryan Coogler and star Michael B. Jordan fulfill their big-screen vision, one that was filmed with real IMAX cameras and is currently being presented in various formats. And, with audiences showing up and selling out auditoriums for a story not based on familiar intellectual property, I’d say that kudos are to be shared collectively with our creative craftsmen and women.
Not to be outdone on the theatrical side of things, there’s a Canadian movie making the rounds at the moment that, while not necessarily on the same attention level as Sinners, represents another side of the same cinematic coin, and I mean this sincerely and seriously. Both of these movies were made with the same kind of independent fire that I crave to see, but one had a bigger budget and is playing everywhere, and the other was a shoestring production and is now showing at a few touring locations. Its title is The Poo Poo Pee Pee Man, and I may be a “sinner” of sorts in comparing these two flicks at all.
Indeed, these films were made with passion and vigor, despite and in spite of the odds going against their making. But they made it through, and are now being screened in the city.
I for one caught Sinners at the first 70MM showtime at Prytania’s Uptown location last week. An afternoon crowd of enthusiastic and respectful patrons, enjoying popcorn and some nachos even, watching a beautifully crisp image of southern horror and delta blues. Perfect sound, great movie, lovely venue.
On the flip side, The Pee Pee Poo Poo Man is the main feature at the multi-disciplinary Zeitgeist Theatre & Lounge. For evening owls, this example of bohemian dirt grunge alternative cinema must be delivering surprise after surprise, as it is more than just about a man dumping buckets of waste on the residents of downtown Toronto, but rather an experimental narrative that toys with the psychotic and the gentrified.
Two great movies. One eclectic city. It doesn’t get any better than this combination.
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Complicated and complex, Sinners will likely be listed at the top of many best of 2025 lists, and rightfully so. Beyond the power of its exhibition prowess, the movie is, first and foremost, entertaining and rabble-rousing. Set in an early 1930s Mississippi black community, Michael B. Jordan plays two twin brothers, Smoke and Stacks, who have just returned from the criminal underworld of Chicago, to bring music to their newly purchased juke joint. Unfortunately for them (and the patrons), a small group of vampires come by to attack and convert the revelers, leading to a series of violent showdowns and personal reckonings.
I’d probably have to write a whole book to properly go over the ins and outs of what’s being shown and told in Sinners, from surface level to between the lines. There’s just so much to cover and so much to chew on. Race, religion, music, and culture all clash with one another, blending one genre into another and more. A celebratory riff on modern blockbusters, Sinners has comfortably and carefully set itself up for a year of debut, thought, revival, and awards. Director Ryan Coogler, who once took to social media to say that his Marvel movie Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was as best a film as he could ever make, can now write checks and cash in for immediate future projects all he wants. This is a towering masterpiece of a film, and I’m flummoxed to go on any further about it.
And it’s partially my job to not be flummoxed.
Too bad, as I also watched The Pee Pee Poo Poo Man.
A young man obsessed with conspiracies and the voices that speak to him, quickly and surely loses “it” and, after a particularly gross baptism-ic embrace into full-blown insanity, begins a campaign of dumping and flinging buckets of his waste on unsuspecting street walkers. There’s almost no reason or rhyme to his actions, other than his victims are young white adults. The movie does peer into the lives of the pooed upon, but only provides answers as to their fates in so far as our removed gaze from the perpetrator can ascertain. In other words, our minds are forced to interpret the unreasonable into something more palatable–if that’s possible.
One after another, set against pop songs whose lyrics have been swapped out with toilet-related words, this anti-hero (?), Toronto is dumped on in impressively vast numbers, shocking the passers-by who the cameras just happened to catch. The Pee Pee Poo Poo Man benefits from these surprise attack sensations on strangers, but a prank show this is not.
Lurking in the bowels of this movie is a disturbing and multi-faceted comedy of literal toilet bowl content and white person plain as mayonnaise conversations. It isn’t just the story of a local “legend,” capturing an image and a voice of a city neighborhood in the most vulgar of ways. Digital grain, aggressive jerks, unexpected confrontational drama, and plenty of muddy browns tell a fascinating tale. Of pee. Of poo. Of man.
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Give or take, New Orleans moviegoers are brilliantly positioned, right now, to make their theatrical stakes on Sinners and The Pee Pee Poo Poo Man. Often ignored by East and West Coast distributors, the big easy does, from time to time, get to flex its curatorial muscles and present some interesting film fare.
Sometimes big, sometimes dangerous. Often meaningful, occasionally messy. Diverse and deep. Single screens, multiple aesthetics. Our regional film culture depends greatly on the made by us and the underseen from anywhere else.
Am I suggesting that we make a Barbenheimer out of Sinners and The Pee Pee Poo Poo Man? Maybe. Or we could just go and buy tickets for both. We could just be seated and be enthralled hopefully.
We should.
It doesn’t get any better than this. ⚜️🍿
Bill Arceneaux has been writing about movies in Hollywood South since 2011. He’s a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association and has a newsletter blog called Moviegoing with Bill. Follow him on Letterboxd and Bluesky.
