Year of Release: 2025
Director: Ryan Cogler
Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, Miles Caton, Jack O'Connell, Delroy Lindo, Wunmi Mosaku, Jayme Lawson, Yao, Li Jun Li, Omar Benson Miller, Sam Malone, Dave Maldonado, Lola Kirke, Peter Dreimanis, Saul Williams, Nathaniel Arcand
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 7
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Synopsis and Review
After back to back Marvel produced features, writer/director Ryan Cogler is back to his own original material, with far better results than the somewhat formulaic comic book fare that he has tackled to considerable audience results. This time around the narrative focuses on the story of twin brothers Smoke and Stack Moore, who in 1932 return to Mississipi after years spent in Chicago working for organized crime (and a stint in the World War as well). They decide to buy a sawmill from a racist landowner in order to start a juke joint. One of the artists they've recruited is their cousin Sammie, a young man who is the son of a local pastor, who states that blues music opens the gateways to a supernatural world. The brothers recruit a variety of people to their team, including local Chinese shopkeepers Grace and Bo Chow, field worker Cornbread as a bouncer, Smoke's partner Annie as a cook, and Delta Slim, the local music legend, as a pianist. The opening night shows a lot of promise, and Mary, Stack's ex-girlfriend shows up as well, even though their shared history is a lengthy one. Sammie, Delta Slim, and Pearline, the latter one a married singer whom Sammie is infatuated with, perform to great success, however Sammie's musical abilities manages to attract Remmick, and Irish-immigrant who is also a vampire. He's turned a few locals into vampires as well, and they all show up at the joint wanting to come in. When the brothers and their team suspect something unseemly with Remmick and his acolytes, they deny them entrance, but as Mary investigates further, things start taking a much darker turn during the evening.
There's a fluidity and a sense of pleasure in "Sinners" that is the biggest takeaway from the film. Or at least it was so for me. Ryan Cogler doesn't necessarily bring too much dimension to any of these characters - he mostly gives telegraphic and essential information about who they are, and their entwined relationships, which enables his talented cast to bring them to life. The film is indeed a polished and deftly executed genre picture, but through the perspective of someone with a firmly established point of view, that is informed by his ancestry, and by the race history in North America. It's a film that is able to bring to the surface so much of Black culture, history, the joy of creation and music, but also mix it with a supernatural potboiler where vampires are musically seduced, but lethal and vicious nonetheless. The film does have a fluidity to it (there are no lulls), though there are aspects that could have benefited from some additional development, such as the twins relationships with the women they're bonded with, but as the film evolves there are echoes of John Carpenter's "Assault on Precinct 13" in the sense of the imminent invasion of the space by a larger group of foes, and there's even some pulp-like nods to Quentin Tarantino's scripted "From Dusk Till Dawn". The most striking aspect about this film is the fact that it manages to balance nods to Africanism, Blues/Music, Religion, Racism, and a supernatural twist, without ever feeling forced. The cast is uniformly solid, with highlights going to Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, Delroy Lindo, Wunmi Mosaku, and Jack O'Connell. The production team is also impeccable, including Autumn Durald Arkapaw's cinematography, Ludwig Goransson's score, Ruth E. Carter's costumes, and Hannah Beachler's production design. An overall deftly crafted and entertaining film worth watching.
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