Sinners, Juliet and Romeo

Adam Holz with Plugged-In advises you to approach this film with caution. Sinners is a strong example of escalating tension. At first, the gradually escalating narrative features just brief moments of wince-worthy violence—like the pop of a stray firecracker on a spring evening. But then as the film nears its conclusion, it feels like the Fourth of July. Adam also reviews the musical Juliet & Romeo. Full reviews at pluggedin.com.

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Episode Transcript

S1 (00:03):
Hey, I'm Adam Holtz from Plugged In, and of course,
it's Friday field trip day.

S2 (00:09):
It is good to have you with us. Adam, thanks
for leading us through in song today. You bet. Always
great to chat with you about media because there's a
lot going on. Um, and Tommy, you had a a
film that came across your desk and your social media stuff, right?

S3 (00:23):
Yes. I wanted to ask you about this, Adam, because
this movie has gotten I mean, a lot of conversations
are being stirred up on social on my social media feed. Yeah.
And it's the movie that's called sinners. I have not
watched it. I have seen people come on and specifically
warn people against this movie. Do not watch it. This

(00:44):
is going to affect your spiritual life. Um, this is
not glorifying to God to watch it. And then I've
seen other people come on and say, oh, this movie
was so well done. And and I learned so much and, oh,
this scene was executed perfectly, and I've never seen anything
like this. And so you have these two sides. And

(01:07):
so I would just be curious to know what you think.
And then the title itself, sinners, you know, is a
little bit, uh, extreme as well. So anyway.

S1 (01:17):
Yeah. So the movie is set in 1932, in the
Deep South, in the middle of prohibition, and it's about
a little jazz and blues club in the middle of
the swamp, essentially, uh, that is primarily frequented by, by
black folks. Um, and, um, the core of the story,

(01:41):
it sort of weaves between music, uh, and vampires. Yeah.
This is a vampire movie. Um, and it is a
movie that has, I think, some, uh, pardon the pun,
rather biting things to say. I see what they don't.
They absolutely do not pay me enough. Um. About racism. Um,

(02:05):
it really is a movie about racism, and it is
a movie that sharply critiques Christianity. I would say as, um,
a force that was used against African Americans. Uh, so
it doesn't have anything nice to say about Christianity, but
it's a it's a movie by Ryan Coogler, and he

(02:27):
has done some pretty phenomenal stuff as a movie maker.
The guy knows how to make a movie, and so
it's getting rave reviews. I can understand why some people
would watch it and say, wow, this is a movie
that that goes some places, uh, you know, really provocatively
in the best sense of that word to help us

(02:49):
think about racism, whereas others would say, yeah, you've got
a movie about vampires. It's hyper violent. It's hyper sensual. Um,
and it doesn't have very much good to say about Christianity.
And so I think really doing our research is important
because I think there's validity to both sides of. Of what, um,

(03:11):
what your friends are saying. I also think, um, back
in 1999, I saw a movie called American Beauty, and
I probably talked about this before with you guys. We
can see a brilliant depiction of depravity. But as a Christian,
do I need to see a brilliant depiction of depravity
to know that it's depraved? Right. And I think I'm

(03:34):
going to say most of the time that answer is
going to be no, that we don't really need to
see depiction of really horrible things, to know that we
live in a world that has oppressed and hurt people. Right? Uh,
so I probably would lean quite a bit more heavily
on the side of you can skip this one while

(03:55):
acknowledging that it's a movie, that that has some artistic value.
And I get why people are liking it because it's,
it's a it's a well made film.

S3 (04:05):
Wow. I appreciate that because you're, you're leading us into
that nuance of if you think it through, okay, you
can say something is well made artistically. Did a good
job with that. However, I don't need to subject my spirit,
my mind to viewing the things we already know are
out there that are horrible. Yeah. And and to and

(04:26):
to see that. To see a movie that may be
really coming against Christianity. That's another reason I think that
was a big, big deal for people.

S1 (04:34):
Yeah. And and I think that's probably maybe in some
ways the biggest issue is, is it's not depicting Christianity
in a way that I think most of us would,
would resonate with it. And it's not depicted as as redemptive.
It's depicted as oppressive as part of the problem, not
part of the answer. And I think I definitely understand

(04:57):
why some people would say, yeah, this is absolutely antithetical
to our faith.

S2 (05:04):
Adam, thank you again for being with us. Unpacking media
the way you do.

S1 (05:08):
Yeah, it's what I do. It's what I do. So I'm.
I'm thankful that I found something that somebody pays me for.

S3 (05:15):
That's a cool way to look at that. Hey, so
there's this other movie we got to ask you about. Yes.
And it's turning things around.

S1 (05:22):
Well, kind of.

S3 (05:23):
Yeah. At least in the title, it's Juliet and Romeo.

S1 (05:27):
Juliet and Romeo. Because it's been like, three years since
our last version of Romeo and Juliet on the big screen, uh,
which was called Rosaline, by the way, if you go
look it up, I think the last Romeo and Juliet
was 2013. It was Baz Luhrmann's version. This is a
story that has been with us. I looked it up yesterday. Uh,
it was first staged in wait for it 1597. Right.

(05:51):
So we're closing in on, what, 450 50 years.

S3 (05:55):
Wow.

S1 (05:56):
That this story has been with us. And it stuck
around that long because we like tragedy. Right. That that
Shakespeare tapped into something.

S3 (06:05):
And love.

S1 (06:06):
That can that you know, our culture can now not
go three years without getting a new version of. So
that seems to be the half life on. I wonder
if people have thought about, you know, or forgotten about
Romeo and Juliet yet. So, uh, as you mentioned, Toby,
this is a it's a spin on it. It is
a musical. Heaven help us. Honestly, you know, if you

(06:27):
were saying your prayers last night and said, oh, I
just wish there was a musical version of Romeo and
Juliet that I could put on repeat. Here it is.
Although you may not want to put it on repeat
for lots of reasons, not the least of which is
it's a story with a lot of content. And if
you're not a 14 year old girl, it might feel

(06:47):
like too much. So, um, obviously all the main elements
are there. This is a story that revolves around a
couple faking their suicide so they can be together. And
what could possibly go wrong, right?

S3 (07:02):
Oh my goodness.

S2 (07:03):
No. That sounds like that's plausible, right? Plausible.

S1 (07:06):
Sounds plausible.

S2 (07:07):
So on stage.

S1 (07:09):
On stage. Right. So yeah, I mean, it's Romeo and
Juliet with more singing and dancing and, uh, it's called
Juliet and Romeo. Just so nobody gets confused, even though
that title in and of itself is quite confusing. But
your kids may be, you know, clued into this from
social media. They may be excited to see it because

(07:30):
it's got singing and dancing and, you know, feels like
High School Musical. So know that it's out there. And
of course, you can find all of the details at
dot com.

S3 (07:41):
Hey, so question about this faking their suicide to be together.
And of course I don't I haven't seen this one either.
But do you think that it could be problematic for
for young people watching that Oh, I did totally know.

S1 (07:55):
I think that we are living in an age where
there is, um, there's a lot of vulnerability. And we
have seen statistically, teen mental health has sort of fallen
off a cliff really since about 2012. And we have
talked about social media's role in that. But suicide is

(08:17):
on adolescents radars in a way that I don't think
it was for us. I mean, it wasn't that it
didn't exist, but I think most of us thankfully didn't
know someone you know who had made that choice. It
wasn't prevalent. It wasn't happening in clusters. Um, and that's

(08:38):
what tends to happen, is there is that contagion element
where one teen does it and another teen does it.
I lived in Colorado Springs for 30 years, and we
had several waves of this, um, where, you know, three
or 4 or 5 kids would, would take their lives
in quick succession. And so I think any movie that
is dealing with suicide, um, potentially serves as a trigger

(09:03):
in that way. And I don't want to clutch my
pearls and be all moral panic about it. But I
do think we need to be wise about the fact
that it's an issue that is different than it was
in our culture even 30 years ago.

S2 (09:17):
All right, Adam, thank you so much for that. But
knowing what we know about this storyline and where we're
at as a culture, it seems to make sense why
they keep trotting out this story, like, every couple of years. Um, yeah.
To put this kind of a tragic story out in
public once again.

S1 (09:37):
Yeah. No, that's exactly right. And and look, I mean,
Shakespeare was a pretty good storyteller, and we can give
him props for that, right? This is a story that
works because because of the situational setup, you have these
two teens from families that hate each other and they
fall in love. What are they going to do? How
is this going to work? Well, it's not going to work. Um,

(09:59):
and the fake suicide plot actually turns into a real
suicide plot because things go awry.

S2 (10:07):
Yeah. They do. And, Adam, thank you so much for just, like,
highlighting some of these different themes that we need to
be aware of. But I just wanted to take a
moment and really just talk about suicide right now. If
you are there and you are struggling through this right now,
there's help available for you right now. And, uh, all
you need to do is call 988. It is the
suicide and Crisis lifeline. Uh, please reach out right now

(10:30):
for help. And don't sit and stew on this one.
Get some assistance right now. And again, that number is nine, eight,
eight for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Adam, thanks so
much for being here with us each and every Friday
on mornings with Tom and Toby.