FLICK'N'BEANS

EP 123: SINNERS - It's Like a Virus, the Vampireness

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This week we bit off a lot! Sinners, the movie that's going to sweep up all the awards! Boom!

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Bridget:

Good morning. Good morning. I'm Bridget. And I'm Wendy and this is Flick and Beans.

Wendy:

So you have coke?

Bridget:

Oh, yeah. I should open it.

Wendy:

I just have regular old folders. But I still holding onto the peppermint mocha. There's a little bit left in our household even though it's February.

Bridget:

That's okay. Peppermint. You know it's red and white. It could be a Valentine's Day thing. Sure.

Wendy:

Valentine's Day is the day after Friday the 13th this year.

Bridget:

I heard that. Oh my gosh. What do you like for Valentine's day? Do you celebrate it?

Wendy:

Not big, no. Like we might go out to eat or something. But it's not like a gift giving holiday or anything like that.

Bridget:

My friend wants to take me out for steak for my birthday. Apparently it's a surprise where they're taking me.

Wendy:

Okay.

Bridget:

But I was looking up, you know, steak restaurants near me and I'm like, I don't want you to do that. It's stealing. Too expensive. There was one nice restaurant, steak restaurant, and the prices were like $68 for a piece of meat.

Wendy:

Right. Let's go to outback.

Bridget:

Well, I looked up Texas Roadhouse and I was like, okay, I can let you spend that.

Wendy:

Yeah, Texas Roadhouse is pretty good. I never go there because it's always busy.

Bridget:

Yeah.

Wendy:

And every time I've ever tried to go, the wait was like two hours.

Bridget:

Well, you know, I'm just now getting into meat. So it's been been hundred years since I've eaten meat. I mean, you know, steak. Wow. It. I can't recall the last time, but it was probably at a bonanza.

Wendy:

Yeah, I loved bonanzas and sirloin stockade that they had in the Midwest.

Bridget:

We always used to go to this place called Mr. Steak like after church and stuff. And their logo was like. Like a bull. Like a cow with horns or something. And for the kids, we talked about this last time drinking huge glasses of milk with your meal. And they called the milk moo juice.

Wendy:

Ew.

Bridget:

Right after I saw that viral cow scratching itself with a broom.

Wendy:

I haven't seen this.

Bridget:

I don't think cows using tools. Apparently it's not an anomaly. And I was like, f****** cows are smart. This whole jo not last forever. Yeah, but I can do a year of meat and see. I still feel bad. It picked up the broom in its mouth, it angled it to scratch its back and then moved to scratching its tummy and sides. Yes, that's freaky. Also this morning, full circle Fiona the hippo Turned nine years old, and guess what they gave her?

Wendy:

A pumpkin.

Bridget:

A watermelon. It was close. It was close. Pumpkin's probably more in season. I'm not sure where she lives, but I do follow Fiona on Facebook and TikTok.

Wendy:

Is she in a zoo, I'm assuming?

Bridget:

Yes.

Wendy:

Okay.

Bridget:

They raised her. She was a preemie, cute viral star. Your weather here is s***.

Wendy:

Was it not snowing on your side of town?

Bridget:

It was not snowing.

Wendy:

It started snowing, like, while you were.

Bridget:

It got worse, worse and worse. The closer I got to your place, and I even slid. I glanced at what looked like a mobile speed camera, and right when I glanced, I, like, slid a little, and I was like, God d***. Yeah, it's like falling and someone sees you.

Wendy:

Which I've done in the snow a few times.

Bridget:

What was that, Jack? Handy one. Whenever I see an old lady slip and fall on the sidewalk, I have to laugh because I'm just glad it's not me.

Wendy:

Well, they say that, you know, you're old when you fall down, and the people around you first go, oh, are you okay? Instead of just laughs.

Bridget:

That is the truth, sister.

Wendy:

All right, should we get into it? This one is a deep and heavy load, but I love it.

Bridget:

Oh, my God. Okay, so our movie this week, sinners 2025. Goodness. I wasn't sure why you wanted to do this movie, because it is so heavy.

Wendy:

It. But it's the best movie I've seen in a very long time. I've never seen anything like it. I feel like it did such a good job of using metaphor in a way that wasn't too corny because it is a vampire film at its core, but it's really a film about the racial wars. And there's a lot of both of that going on. And just the way that it was shot, the whole music element of it was so cool. There's just so many things about it that. And it all just went together. So I don't know. I loved it.

Bridget:

It's got tons of buzz, so I read a lot about it. I saw the symb of certain things, but I needed more as who I am. I needed more direction in the deeper meanings behind it. As a white woman, I feel awkward talking about it.

Wendy:

Sure, I agree. Like, this is not our perspective, but I do think that it's important for people like us to see these kind of movies because it really puts it in your face. And if you think this is set in 1932 Mississippi, that wasn't even 100 years ago ago.

Bridget:

No, no.

Wendy:

And so there are people alive now that were alive then.

Bridget:

Right.

Wendy:

Like, it's not. I think people forget that we're not that far away from people just getting lynched in public.

Bridget:

Oh, right.

Wendy:

So when people are saying things like racism is over, like, I just think it's important for people to watch this kind of stuff, to learn things because it made me curious about a black experience in America. For example, one thing I looked up and this is probably going to sound naive, but it occurred to me that so many people in this movie, they all have a nickname. Is there historical reasons for that? I started looking into it and yeah, it is. It's like taking power over your identity right away from the people that named you your quote unquote slave names or your oppressors. They changed their names when they were taken as slaves to more western white names.

Bridget:

Well, I think too, it might go back the slave owner days. Why would a slave owner care what their name was? Like, you know, the fat guy calling him Cornbread and Smoke and Stack, they're twins.

Wendy:

Right. The point in the movie that really made me think about is when Preacher Boy introduces himself as Preacher Boy to his love interest the summer. And I was like, it's weird that this girl that you like, you're introducing yourself as your nickname. But it really is more than that. It was also a way for them to be secretive about who they were talking about. The white people that were around didn't know who Preacher Boy was maybe, but their community did little things like that that I don't think about on a normal basis. And movies like this make me curious about it and make me learn about it. And I think we should all learn more. I wish I knew more. I want to learn more.

Bridget:

Yeah. A horrible time when you're intermingled. But when you're with your people and in this case, all across time and space and all that at the end, they say, that was when I felt most free.

Wendy:

Yeah. Those few hours.

Bridget:

Yeah. The best day of my life. Up until dusk.

Wendy:

Yes. Until the sun went down, which they're talking about Smoke and Stack. For anyone who hasn't seen the movie or is interested in that is Michael B. Jordan. He's playing Twins, which is a little confusing throughout the movie. Like, they dress them a little bit different. Smoke is usually in a greenish blue hat and Stack is usually in red. Red hat. Okay. But there's dark. The colors are very dark and like not bright. So sometimes you're like, is this Smoker Stack? For me, I got confused sometimes the.

Bridget:

Entire collar of the movie.

Wendy:

Yeah.

Bridget:

That brown filter that they used to use.

Wendy:

Yes. Yeah.

Bridget:

Yes.

Wendy:

It is like that. Yeah.

Bridget:

Yeah.

Wendy:

I like that effect. And it does give it that historical. Historical feel.

Bridget:

Yeah.

Wendy:

For the time period. There were some things I thought were interesting about the visuals that I didn't notice last time is that whenever they're in a spiritual spot, they blur out the edges of the screen. I didn't notice that that happened. When Smoke goes back to see Annie, the witchy medicine woman of her community, and when she's talking to him, all of a sudden the screen gets blurry around the outside. When she starts talking about the protection spell that she put on him, I don't know if we're supposed to think that it worked, but he is the only one that survives in the end, I think.

Bridget:

Well, Sammy does.

Wendy:

Sammy survives. Yeah.

Bridget:

Right.

Wendy:

But, you know, everybody else is taken or killed by vampires or someone else by the end of the movie.

Bridget:

Right.

Wendy:

And so at the end he takes it off and then he's finally, like, free and can die.

Bridget:

Yeah. When we first realized that there's a vampire, I was confused because you're introducing suddenly some white characters.

Wendy:

Yes.

Bridget:

The couple lets the man into their house and he turns them into vampires immediately. So we know they're vampires because they're asking to be invited in. We know that because we already saw the guy kill both of those. Anyway, Smoke and Stack don't know that, but they have the ick. And they're like, okay, we're not letting these three white people come in because you could say one wrong word and it's a lynch mob. Actually, they did do lynchings in that building. It was like a sawmill. Because in the beginning he notices some blood on the floor. So it's kind of like they're taking that back.

Wendy:

Yeah, absolutely.

Bridget:

That space for praise almost. And it starts and ends in a church and. Because Preacher Boy's father is a preacher.

Wendy:

Right. And Preacher Boy, he is a special kind of musician that can make a portal to our ancestors and our future. I didn't know before I watched this movie that any of that was in it. I just thought it was like, a vampire.

Bridget:

Well, yeah, because it's labeled as horror.

Wendy:

Yeah. So that part when the first time I watched it, that blew me away. I thought that was so cool. The scene where he starts playing in the juke and all their ancestors start showing up, and then the people in the future start showing up, and it's like all the different music throughout the years and they show all of the Black. But they also show the Asian ancestors, too. And I just thought that was cool.

Bridget:

That was well done. There was a whole fever pitch. Like, it just got more and more and more unified and united. The white folks, as with all black music, they're drawn to it. Also, something about that head vampire, and I didn't really get this, but the way they explained it was that when he kills someone, he basically takes all of their memories and everything into himself. They come under the guise of, we just want to love everyone and be a whole group come together, unified, white, black, doesn't matter. And later, they pointed to that hole where he takes in all their power and stuff when they're in the field and he's singing that Irish song and everyone's dancing behind him, but they were dancing kind of jerky and weird, and you just think, oh, it's because they're family vampires. But it's really because he's kind of controlling them.

Wendy:

It is sort of like a weird virus. The vampireness and the. Yeah. They're all one being. And I wish we had a little more backstory on the main vampire, but we don't really get that to understand, like, where did he come from? Why does he want to make all these people? Is it the vampire, like, virus that makes you want to do that? Or is the. This particular person just wanting to create a horde of vampires?

Bridget:

Right.

Wendy:

Really clear.

Bridget:

Because when Sammy opens up that portal, he lets in both good and evil, heaven and h***.

Wendy:

Yeah. As a musician myself, and as somebody that likes to go to, like, concerts and things like that, I absolutely feel like that moment where you're all moving to the beat, there's something spiritual about that. It is.

Bridget:

It's magical.

Wendy:

You are.

Bridget:

Sexing.

Wendy:

You're accessing God or whatever, higher energy, whatever you believe in. Like, you're accessing that when you play music or dance with. To the same music with other people. And to portray it in the way that they did, I just thought was so cool. We also all are on the backs of the people that made music before us because we learn from them, we remix it, we make new music, but you can never do it without the people that were behind you. And I think that's just the way that that was done. Without words even.

Bridget:

Yeah.

Wendy:

Was so cool.

Bridget:

You know what that reminds me of? Avatar.

Wendy:

Avatar.

Bridget:

Yeah. Where they're all connected to the tree.

Wendy:

Yeah.

Bridget:

And they're all one, and they have all the memories.

Wendy:

Can they feel each other's pain in Avatar 2? I feel like they can. Of the tree. Anyway.

Bridget:

Oh who knows, probably the vampires feel each other's pain.

Wendy:

That's a weird thing that.

Bridget:

Oh that is weird.

Wendy:

I don't think I've seen in another vampire movie.

Bridget:

Well I never saw any vampire that took in the powers and the whatevers.

Wendy:

True, there is some folklore of being able to read minds in twilight. Some of them can. You want to. I think you got to put some of them, I think you have to put twilight in the folklore but they took a lot of liberties with it.

Bridget:

Oh my goodness. What was gross to me is it's like okay, after you kill someone, wipe your d*** face.

Wendy:

Yeah, they're inconsistent about the blood too because some of the people that came back, you couldn't tell they'd been bit.

Bridget:

Right.

Wendy:

Like did they heal? But yet the person that bit them still had blood all over over them.

Bridget:

Well we don't know where they bit. True, they are people meeting up in the woods after all. Who knows?

Wendy:

Is it Mary Stack's love interest?

Bridget:

Yeah, she had been kind of go out and you can pass as white easily. She was light skinned enough but so she's like kind of in the both worlds.

Wendy:

Yeah, they bite her like on her back where you can't see it because you see it later when she's attacking Stack that she has the bite marks on her back so that's a good point. They're biting them in inconspicuous places maybe.

Bridget:

But yeah, that whole passing is white. She's the only one who really could go out there and interact with the white folks.

Wendy:

Yeah, you just don't know because they're still active clan, there's several, they buy the juke from an active clan member and even though when he's buying it he's like, you know, the clan don't exist no more.

Bridget:

Yeah, yeah.

Wendy:

And then at the end I. Well of course we're supposed to hate that guy, he's a piece of s***. But at the end he's like Smoke, I have money, I have money. That's not gonna save you.

Bridget:

No sir, no. And yeah and we know Smoke is dying because he looks over and he sees his stillborn baby and his wife but the baby's alive and suckling and then bloody. He gets to hold his baby, he.

Wendy:

Can hold her bloody but he can't be smoking. He had to put the cigarette.

Bridget:

God that's funny.

Wendy:

That scene is really sweet. I thought their relationship was sweet. They definitely cared for each other but in the beginning I was a little confused when he goes back to visit her whether it Was his love interest or because of the way that she was speaking about protecting him. And she called him Elijah, which is something like moms call you by your real name.

Bridget:

Right.

Wendy:

And then they start making out and like, oh, no, she didn't look old enough to be his mom. But I was just like, are they trying to make it.

Bridget:

So that was. I couldn't tell either.

Wendy:

Yeah. At first you're like, wait, who is this character?

Bridget:

Not till they developed it a little more. You're supposed to maybe wonder.

Wendy:

Yeah. Maybe you are supposed to wonder who this person is to him. I like the way that the Smokestack Brothers say I love you. There's like, well, love you. That's how they say every single time.

Bridget:

They say love you.

Wendy:

Yeah. You gonna make me say it. You know I love you. Well, I love you.

Bridget:

It's kind of casual, kind of sly, kind of low bones. Yeah.

Wendy:

Low bones. They're. Honestly, the Smokestack Brothers are the coolest.

Bridget:

Oh, yeah.

Wendy:

They're so smooth. They're hot. They're dangerous. They're bad people. They've done a lot of bad stu stuff, but at their heart, you can tell it's like, coming from a good place. They're trying to uplift their people as a whole. They're educating the younger people there's. With funny things like oral sex. Like oral sex. No one tells you that growing up. That's a good thing to know.

Bridget:

Yeah. He found the button.

Wendy:

We found the button. Listen, my little cousin, I love them so much. They teach stuff. That neighborhood girl about negotiating for money.

Bridget:

Oh, yeah.

Wendy:

When he asks her to watch the truck, he's like, okay. When numbers are involved, there's always got to be a conversation. And I'm like, that's such a, like, little nugget of wisdom that it sure is. Don't get. I never got that.

Bridget:

And she did. Well.

Wendy:

Yeah. It's like. So they're. They're really trying to do some good, but in their world, they have to do some bad to get there. Or they have done some bad s***. I think they had to.

Bridget:

Well, they went to Chicago, and I think they were doing kind of mob things.

Wendy:

Yeah.

Bridget:

And so they would have seen a lot more of the world and brought back money to open this juke joint. Yeah. Whether it was gained illegally or not.

Wendy:

And they also were both in the military.

Bridget:

Okay.

Wendy:

Because they talk about being in the trenches in Germany together. So they were in the first World War, which is such a. Another layer to the racism these people fought next to you. It's Fine. For they were in trenches together, fighting for their country, and then they come back here. They're not on the same team anymore.

Bridget:

No. Everything's segregated.

Wendy:

Yeah.

Bridget:

And they're trying to say they're not lesser people, as they used to say in the slave days or whatever. That's a terrible phrase to end with or whatever. But they were, you know, it was called separate but equal.

Wendy:

Now, this was a specific slave thing, but it was like five, eight a person or something like that three fifth. So that. That used to be what they were considered a person. They were like not a whole person in maybe like two years ago. This blows my mind still. I was in like a webinar, a professional webinar at work with people from other companies. And someone at the end of the call chimed in and goes, well, if they say that three fifths of a person is enough, it's good enough for me. And I was like, oh, my God.

Bridget:

What?

Wendy:

What the f***?

Bridget:

What?

Wendy:

This guy just said this in a public forum. It wasn't related to, like a specific person or whatever, but, like, why are you saying that? And so stuff like that just blows my mind. But then again, you have to think, this wasn't even 100 years ago. These kind of ideals still exist. And it's so gross.

Bridget:

Well, the Civil Rights act wasn't even until the late 60s.

Wendy:

Yeah.

Bridget:

Jesus.

Wendy:

That's just all very hard to. To deal with. And I don't even have to deal with it on a regular basis.

Bridget:

Well, you know, we're dealing with something like that. We're seeing a lot in Minneapolis and whatnot. And it's so scary. And I can't imagine how scary it would have been in a situation where, you know, people in hoods or just, you know, lynch mob. That is the scariest thing ever.

Wendy:

Yeah. There's a scene where Jim, the piano player, he tells a story about his fellow musician friend. They went and they played for a bunch of white people and they made a bunch of money. And then his friend got the wad of money out to pay for the bus and he got the whole wad out. Some white guys saw that, killed him to take his money. Just like in a public freaking train station. Hi, baby. Gus, do you want to chime in?

Bridget:

Nope, not today. You're going to take my hat. Hi.

Wendy:

Good morning.

Bridget:

Better go outside. Come on, let's go, let's go.

Wendy:

Where were we? Oh, talking about lynch mobs.

Bridget:

Oh, just lynch mobs.

Wendy:

You know, just casual conversation. Goodness, so crazy to me. And I kept thinking, too, towards the end of this movie. How do we stop this cycle of people hating people they. That are different from them? Because I feel like it's all. It's like a perpetual violence because the blacks are violent towards the whites, because the whites are violent towards them. I guess you have to stop with the. I don't know where the hatred for the blacks comes from. I guess just being different, wanting power. The hatred for the whites is valid because they've been oppressed by them. So. But it's. It is a circle of violence because once they are violent again towards another person, then that group is like, oh, well, they're violent. It's fine if we're violent back. You know what I'm saying? How do we stop that? I don't know.

Bridget:

There's no answer. Unless, you know, you have to have that same group mentality. You know, obviously there's. There's a lot of people still that don't really care. Yeah, they're naughty by nature. I did not.

Wendy:

You did not say that.

Bridget:

Wow. I impressed myself there.

Wendy:

But, I mean, this is not a problem that we should try to solve on flicking beans. We're not the place.

Bridget:

S***.

Wendy:

No, but I do think with all the buzz around this movie, I wanted to cover it because I just think that I want as many people to see this movie because I think it deserves. I just think it's really good.

Bridget:

It's beautifully done. For a freaking vampire movie?

Wendy:

Yeah.

Bridget:

It's not a vampire movie, but there is some gore. It's not like it has jump scares. Yeah, well, it's gonna sweep all the awards.

Wendy:

Oh, I'm sure.

Bridget:

Craziness. Do you have anything else? I'm gonna have to put a disclaimer that there's a lot of spoiler alerts. It's a little late now to say.

Wendy:

I think that should just be a general disclaimer on. If you listen to our show. We're gonna spoil it. Yeah, that's the thing.

Bridget:

The out of it.

Wendy:

My last note in there is, this movie makes me want a cigarette.

Bridget:

Oh, yeah?

Wendy:

Yeah. So that's my only other comment.

Bridget:

I like it. Wow. Okay. I like that.

Wendy:

Yeah.

Bridget:

All right. Did we do it?

Wendy:

I think we did it. We flicked some beads.

Bridget:

Okay.

Wendy:

I love you.

Bridget:

Bye. Party all night long.

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Bridget

Co-host
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Wendy

Co-host