Sinners review
Ryan Coogler crafts a show stopping number…and then starts an entirely different kind of show
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Sinners
Directed by Ryan Coogler
Written by Ryan Coogler
Starring Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, Miles Caton, Jack O-Connell, Wunmi Mosaku, Jayme Lawson and Delroy Lindo
Sinners Review
Every great filmmaker should make a horror movie. It’s an opinion I’ve held since Christopher Nolan was rumored to have been asked about his interest in making a Halloween film well over a decade ago. I don’t even know if that actually happened…but I’ve wanted to see it since hearing it. Spielberg’s Jaws made him a star. Hitchcock’s Psycho is his most famous movie in a career of famous movies. David Lynch infused horror elements into almost everything he made. Same with David Cronenberg. Every great filmmaker should make a horror movie. Ryan Coogler, a great filmmaker who had never dabbled in the genre, clearly shares my opinion.
To take this a step further…Coogler shows off why I believe that in his latest film, Sinners. A great filmmaker isn’t going to look at a genre film as something that’s beneath them…something that has to be treated as lesser than the rest of their filmography. They’re simply going to try and make a great film.
Now…everyone who makes any movie sets out to do that…but the great filmmakers are uniquely capable of doing so. They don’t abandon what interests them to conform to genre tropes and cliches. They layer genre concepts on top of a story they already want to tell. Psycho still feels like a Hitchcock movie. It just happened to change a genre forever. Jaws is every bit of a young Spielberg’s energy and innovation put on screen. It just happens to be about a killer shark. Sinners is a complete Ryan Coogler film experience. It just happens to have vampires in it.
If you need proof that Coogler isn’t interested in compromising his talents and interests for a quick cash in attempt with genre fans…he turns to his favorite collaborator, Michael B. Jordan, to play not one but two roles in Sinners. Any further convincing will come while watching the first half of the film in which almost nothing vampire or horror related occurs. Coogler crafts another story about the black experience…far away from the modern realities of Fruitvale Station or the mythical country of Wakanda. 1932 Mississippi serves as the backdrop for Coogler’s (eventual) vampiric tale.
Twin brothers Elijah and Elias, known as Smoke and Stack to most, return to Mississippi after time up north working for Al Capone. These gangsters have double crossed everyone and absconded with a lot of alcohol. A hot commodity in the prohibition era. Their plan is to open a “juke joint”. A place where people can dance, play cards, listen to live blues music, drink…and, most importantly, pay. The entire story of Sinners takes place over about one day. Which is incredible given the number of things that happen.
I wouldn’t define Sinners as a slow burn…because there is little warning as to what direction it will be heading. Instead, Coogler shows us a day in the life of the brothers as they purchase, set up and run their new establishment. Each brother has someone waiting for them when they return. Each has skeletons in their closet. Coogler and Jordan give us three-dimensional characters before changing the story on them completely. Their cousin Sammie (Miles Caton) is a gifted musician helping them launch the new venture. He’s looking forward to playing for everyone…even if it means going against the wishes of his father…a preacher who warns that his music is an invitation to the devil.
Sammie should have listened to his father.
The music does, in fact, draw evil to the twin’s party. As far as musical performances that have the power to do that go…Sinners has the banger of all bangers. It’s a transcendent, powerful, moving scene that stands as one of the best of the year. In any genre. Music plays a big role in Sinners. We’re treated to several performances…each of them entertaining.
The evil that arrives is, of course, in the form of vampires. We see them once before the music draws them forward…the only hint at what Coogler is heading the characters towards. The initial three vamps to hit the scene do so in hopes of being invited into the party. Coogler makes his vampire rules clear…and an invite is needed. What stops them from gaining immediate entry as musicians and spending customers isn’t their odd demeanor or a sense of supernatural doom. It’s because they’re white. The twins are immediately suspicious of the man they purchased the building from…knowing that the Klan still runs deep in these parts. They’re right to be worried…but Coogler doesn’t make the vampire’s cause as simple as unchecked racism.
In fact, Coogler doesn’t seem overly interested in metaphorically tying his vampires to race whatsoever. There is an obvious allusion to white culture literally sucking up traditional black music for itself…that’s too clever to let pass. But Coogler has a different idea in mind for his vampires. They’re more than happy to add people of all races to their collective mind. Most of the vampires our main characters will end up contending with are their own friends and neighbors. Is there a deeper metaphor to it all? Sure. But Coogler makes pretty clear in the final scenes of Sinners that there is a place for all kinds of evil in his story. The vampires have their own agenda. So do the town racists. Surviving the night doesn’t mean you’ve survived the evil. It simply changes forms.
Horror fans will be happy to know that Coogler eventually cuts his vampires loose completely. A wild bloodbath ensues that calls to mind another film about vampires overtaking a bar…From Dusk til Dawn. Another horror film made by a great filmmaker that arguably stands as his finest work. So it can also be said about Sinners. Coogler has pointed out that Sinners is his first original film. That’s true even if it doesn’t feel right. Fruitvale Station was based on true events. Creed was a continuation/resetting of the Rocky franchise. Black Panther and its sequel were parts of an ongoing universe with decades of source material behind them. But they all felt like original works due to Coogler’s gifts as a storyteller. Sinners stands as, perhaps, his finest work. And, what do you know…it’s a horror movie.
Scare Value
Sinners is a great vampire movie. It’s also a great Ryan Coogler movie. Full of great performances, moments and music. It even finds time to land some great jokes. Michael B. Jordan is at his best. Coogler is too. It’s a combination that seems capable of transcending genres and simply delivering great movies. With no shortage of beautiful imagery, moving scenes and surprising moments…Sinners is one of the best movies of the year. Horror or otherwise.
4.5/5
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