2025 • Amazon MGM Studios
Rated: PG
Length: 1 hr 43min
Biography ~ Drama ~ History – True Story
Director: Cyrus Nowrasteh
Writer: Screenplay by Cyrus Nowrasteh and Betsy Giffen Nowrasteh.
Actors: Zachary Levi, Naya Desir-Johnson, Sonequa Martin-Green, and Garret Dillahunt.
Inspired by A True Story Of Faith And Fortune.
Official Trailer
The Book
Sarah’s Oil (2025) is based on The Novel Searching for Sarah Rector: The Richest Black Girl in America by Tonya Bolden published January 7, 2014.
At the age of eleven, Sarah was a very rich young girl. Even so, she was powerless . . . helpless in the whirlwind of drama―and danger―that swirled around her. Then one day word came that she had disappeared. This is her story, and the story of other children like her, filled with ups and downs, bizarre goings-on, and a heap of crimes. Out of a trove of primary documents, including court and census records, as well as interviews with family members, Bolden painstakingly pieces together the events of Sarah’s life.
Sarah’s Oil (2025) – Review
Sarah’s Oil (2025) is the True Story of Sarah Rector (Naya Desir-Johnson), a descendant of the Creek Freedman. The Creek Freedmen were Muscogee people of African descent who were enslaved by Native American Muscogee people before 1866. They were emancipated by The Muscogee Nation’s treaty with the United States in 1866. Freedmen who wished to stay in the Creek Nation in Indian Territory, with whom they often had blood relatives, were to be granted full citizenship in the Creek Nation and allotted parcels of land.
Sarah Rector was granted 160 acres of land in Oklahoma through the Federal program. Sarah tells her Mom and Dad that she can hear oceans of oil beneath the surface of her land. She is convinced that she is setting on a gold mine of untapped oil. The land was considered unfit for anything, especially farming. but Sarah is convinced she is already rich. Sarah and her family set out to explore the possibility that there is a vast ocean of oil on her property.
Along the way they meet the white man’s greed and thirst for oil at any cost. Sarah has a run in with a Wildcatter from out of town who decides to help her and her family drill for that oil. Bert (Zachary Levi) and his partner Mace (Mel Rodriguez) set up on Sarah’s property and they proceed to drill baby drill. The race is on to get to the oil that greedy adversaries are starting to sniff out. With lives being lost in horrendous ways over mineral and property rights, things get very dangerous and tense.
I love the True Story Movies and this is another good one. It reminds me of the Sunday night World of Disney movies I watched as a kid. It also reminds me a lot of Killers Of The Flower Moon, also a True Story with a very similar storyline. Naya Desir-Johnson is captivating as the loveable but very serious little girl who is all business when it comes to her oil. The relationship and chemistry between her and Zachary Levi is contagious, very heartfelt.
It is a great story and a better movie, well worth a watch. Especially if you have a young daughter in the house, I thought it was very inspirational. Check it Out!
Sarah’s Oil (2025) – Review by Bobby @ Streaming Movie Night.
Movie Stills
Sarah’s Oil (2025) – Review – © 2026 Streaming Movie Night
Bonus Content
A Family Legacy Featurette
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