‘Sarah’s Oil’ Review: Family-Friendly Drama Persuasively Depicts a Battle for Oil-Rich Land Not Far From the Period of ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’
Variety | 07.11.2025 22:00
Just in case the violent events portrayed in Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” weren’t enough to convince you that Oklahoma was a perilous place for people of color with claims to oil-rich land in the early 20th century, we now have “Sarah’s Oil,” a more family-friendly movie that nonetheless offers a similarly cautionary history lesson. Propelled by newcomer Naya Desir-Johnson’s perfect-pitch performance as Sarah Rector, an 11-year-old Black girl who firmly believes there is an abundance of black gold beneath property she has been bequeathed, director Cyrus Nowrasteh’s fact- and faith-based drama is as thoroughly predictable as it is irresistibly uplifting.
