written and directed by Ryan Coogler
I am not a horror movie fan, so I was admittedly hesitant to check out Sinners, the latest movie from Black Panther director Ryan Coogler, but I have been a Ryan Coogler fan since the first Black Panther, even after he made the sequel without the lead character (a corporate-mandated move if ever there was one). That, coupled with the significant buzz surrounding this film (including the rare convergence of critics and audience scores over on rottentomatoes.com) was enough to help me get over my usual aversion to horror movies, and I am really glad I did.
Probably one reason I enjoyed this a lot more than I would have a "traditional" horror movie is that this movie definitely does not play out like a horror movie. A full forty minutes go by before the vampire promised by the film's marketing even shows up, but that isn't time wasted because in that time, we the viewers have gotten to know the characters, starting with aspiring musician Sammie Moore (Miles Caton) son of the strict preacher Jedidiah (Saul Wiliams) whose twin cousins, former soldiers Elijah "Smoke" and Elias "Stack" (both played by Michael B. Jordan) have come home from Chicago after a brief stint working for Al Capone to set up their very own juke joint. The movie is set in 1932, right smack in Jim Crow Mississippi, and the brothers, who as soldiers and later as mob enforcers have seen their fair share of violence, just want to carve out a place for themselves. The twins invite Sammie, who shreds a mean guitar, pianist Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo) and singer Pearline (Jayme Lawson) and also recruit help from people around town to help them out, like Grace Chow (Li Jun Li) and her husband Bo (Yao) to help stock up on food and other supplies, and Smoke's ex Annie (Wunmi Mosaku) to cook and serve drinks. An unexpected guest, however, comes in the form of Stack's jilted lover Mary (Hailee Steinfeld), who invites herself into the juke joint and won't leave until Stack has heard what she has to say.
The stage has been set for a magically intoxicating night of music, dancing and drinks by the time the actual vampire Remmick (Jack O' Connell) shows up, on the run from Choctaw Native Americans out to slay him. At first, Remmick is content to bite and enslave a Ku Klux Clan couple (Peter Dreimanis and Lola Kirke), but when Sammie starts playing and singing, there is something transcendental about his music that draws spirits from the past and the future to him, and draws in Remmick as well, and at that moment, Remmick makes it his goal to get Sammie, even if it means he has to kill or enslave everyone else in the juke joint to do it. The normally tough-as-nails twins soon realize they are in for the fight of their lives.
Everything about this film is positively sumptuous, from its sultry period setting to the lived-in costumes and locations, to the gorgeous cinematography. This film just adores being on the big screen, and even though I didn't catch it in IMAX I appreciated the panoramic presentation just the same. Coogler clearly loves cinema and at a time when streamers have threatened to make movie theaters irrelevant, films like this offer a stunning riposte.
Special mention, of course, has to go to Ludwig Goransson's mesmerizing, utterly outstanding score, which is a character all its own in the film. As with Coogler, I've been fan of Goransson's since Black Panther, and what strikes me most about the guy is his versatility; the guitar-heavy score here sounds completely different from just about anything I'd heard from him before (which is admittedly limited to the two Black Panther movies and Creed) but it is just as arresting. At the young age of forty Goransson already has two Oscars for best original score to his name, and I would not be surprised if he added one more very soon.
Ironically, the horror aspect of the film, if anything, feels like the weaker aspect of the film, particularly the climactic battle in which, after the people still standing at the juke joint have apparently been reduced to a very specific set of characters, suddenly a whole bunch of red shirts jump into the final battle as well. Still, this is a very, very minor quibble, because the movie, up until this point has been pretty much exemplary in terms of pure storytelling.
Coogler has unquestionably brought his A-game to this film, as have all of his cast members and his collaborators.
This is a film that absolutely has to be seen.
10/10
