i can’t stop thinking about ‘sinners.’

The vampiric blockbuster is a must-see for marginalized folks right now.

Queering the Burbs is a distillation of pop culture, politics and queerness published twice weekly by Joe Erbentraut. This is what’s good, this newsletter’s monthly column for paid Queering the Burbs subscribers exploring the movies and TV shows I’ve been enjoying (or not) over the past month.

Anyone can read a preview of the column below, but you’ll need to subscribe or upgrade to access the whole thing.

Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures

I probably joke too regularly about wishing somebody would hook me up with a lobotomy, but when I recently saw this Instagram reel from creator Gabe Pietrafesa, I realized what it is I’m actually thinking about when I repost a “Live, Laugh, Lobotomy” meme onto my Instagram Stories. As Pietrafesa argues, a trip to see a movie in theaters is “the closest thing I’ve got to a lobotomy.” “Better than therapy,” he adds.

I would never diminish the power of therapy, but I think Pietrafesa makes some points here. Movies—especially when experienced in theaters—force us out of our everyday reality and off of our phones. A good movie, in particular, makes it really difficult to keep spiraling about how much laundry you have to do back home or that difficult conversation you still need to have.

All of this is especially the case because the movie that inspired Pietrafesa’s video is his trip to watch Sinners, the Ryan Coogler-directed vampire film that has become an unexpected (by some) hit at the box office since it first hit theaters weeks ago. I caught the movie a few days after it premiered and even though the movie has inspired several cycles of internet discourse already, I still haven’t stopped thinking about it constantly.

With Pride Month just around the corner, Sinners feels particularly resonant for how every June becomes a time when some allies and corporations circle their wagons to affirm the queer community in the most tepid, least disruptive way possible. “Love is love,” they say. “Love wins,” they quip. But where are all of these folks the other 11 months of the year? Why don’t they share the same enthusiasm for supporting our most vulnerable members of the community? Why won’t they engage directly with the community to ask how they can actually be most helpful during these terrifying times?

I see so many parallels between how the Irish immigrant vampires in Sinners want to be invited inside the Moore brothers’ juke joint and how many cis, straight folks approach Pride Month every year. Scroll on for more of my thoughts on Sinners and the rest of this edition of what’s good.

Movies

Sinners (in theaters)

How gay is it (scale of 1-10)? 10

Worth your time (scale of 1-10)? 10

First of all, there’s nothing explicitly about Sinners that is queer per se, however I feel like any vampire movie is implicitly queer-coded. Beyond that, there is so much to be enjoyed and taken away from the movie that feels relevant to any marginalized person living in the U.S. today. And, perhaps even more importantly, it’s just a fucking fantastic and important movie.

Michael B. Jordan stars as two twin brothers—Smoke and Stack Moore—who leave Chicago and return to their hometown in Clarksdale, Mississippi in 1932. The twins purchase an abandoned sawmill, which they plan to open up as a juke joint catering specifically to the community’s Black residents. They recruit their talented younger cousin, Sammie, to play guitar at the juke joint. On opening night, his performance is magical, conjuring spirits from the past and future, as well as (unfortunately) attracting a growing crowd of vampires who just want to be let in on all the fun—with fatal results.