‘Sinners’ Rolling Stone ‘Top 20 Movies of 2025’ Snub Sparks Debate

Earlier this year, the movie Sinners premiered in theaters after much anticipation. After its theatrical release on April 18, 2025, the overwhelming majority found the film fantastic. It gave insight into what the South was like in the 20th century, but added a supernatural twist.

The movie followed two twin brothers, Stack and Smoke, as they returned to Mississippi to open a bar in the South. However, things don’t go exactly to plan after a vampire that goes by the name of Remmick (John O’Connell) is not invited into the club, and mayhem ensues.

“From the start, Sinners shows how spiritual intuition protects us, dreams, gut feelings, and ancestral warnings. It’s not superstition, it’s instinct,” said a TikTok user who goes by Ms. Kennedy.

She then goes deeper into her review on TikTok and states that Sinners reminds us of Black people’s lives and how they try to silence them.

“They’re trying to silence our stories, but sinners remind us of our truth, lives, and rhythm, the blood and memory we come from vision, power, and people who made beauty out of pain,” she continued.

Overall, Sinners became one of the highest-grossing horror movies of this year, making 365 million worldwide, making it one of the most successful original films of the 2020s.

However, controversy began to settle in after Rolling Stone released their top 20 movies of 2025. On the top 20 list, the film Sinners was not mentioned, causing social media to go into an uproar.

“All art is objective, and Rolling Stones critics are allowed their opinions, and this definitely skewed more indie and international, but for Sinners to not even make the top 20 seems ridiculous and maybe done on purpose like a contrary opinion for the sake of being contrarian and stirring hate,” the TikTok account Alex Pop Culture Brain said.

Alex from TikTok isn’t the only person to point this out; people such as Van Lathan Jr took to X and voiced their concerns.

“Like others have said, Sinners is not on the list. I seen these movies. This is a farce. Farcical I say,” Lathan Jr said.

Author Andrew Grevas was also massively disappointed with the listing, writing a statement saying, “The writer mentioned centers in his opening paragraph and then didn’t include it in his list of 20, while Sinners is my favorite film of the year. I can’t see how any self-respecting film critic doesn’t at least have it in their top three. Epic fail, Rolling Stone.”

Much like the previous statements, the majority of people reacting to the Rolling Stone list have been the same: everyone feeling disappointed and confused about why Sinners was not included in this year’s listing.

So far, Rolling Stone has not responded to any of the criticism.

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