Sinners is Electrifying

I was expecting to love Sinners long before its release. Ryan Coogler has quickly become one of my favorite directors. His Black Panther movies in the MCU are still great, Fruitvale Station wrecked me, and I watch Creed at least once a year and never grow tired of it. If I went into this only knowing Ryan Coogler was behind it, my expectations still would’ve been high.

And yet, Sinners still managed to exceed my expectations. This is a masterpiece, an incredible theater experience that had me floored the whole way through. Of course, if you’ve been on any part of the internet you know I’m not the only one feeling this way. Usually when a movie gets that kind of praise, it makes me wary. But man is this praise deserved. It really is that fucking spectacular.

Set in 1932 Mississippi, the movie centers on three characters: the gifted singer Sammie Moore (Miles Canton), and his gangster cousins Smoke and Stack (both played by Michael B. Jordan). Sammie tags along with the twins when they return to their hometown after making a lot of money in Chicago. Their intention with the money? Buy out an old sawmill and start a juke joint, giving themselves and their community total freedom, at least for a night. While it starts out great, it soon becomes a total nightmare when none other than vampires begin to wreak havoc on the night.

The biggest praise I think I can give Sinners is that everybody is firing on all cylinders here. From a pure filmmaking standpoint it is just staggering. From a writing standpoint it’s just as impressive. It’s crazy just how well put together this thing is from every angle, that a single viewing just doesn’t feel like enough. 

Coogler obviously deserves much of the praise here, not just from his directing but his writing. I gave a barebones summary of the story, but believe me when I say there is just so much more to this here. There is so much to every single character here, from its main characters and their relationships to people in the community, to the central villain. It would’ve been so easy to keep the villain simple, but Coogler isn’t interested in that and goes a step further, and that same attention goes for the rest of the film. Make no mistake, this is a home run of a movie if you just take it at face value. Its slow build is perfect and when the tension ratchets up you feel it in every part of your body. It revels in its fun and mayhem and has a ton of fun with the vampire lore. And yet there is still much to it. There are just so many threads to pull, so many things it’s tackling, from race to freedom to spirituality to history to music to relationships and more, that it is truly absurd. You could write an essay on just one of these themes, or just how perfectly structured the narrative is here, and still have so much more to dissect. It feels like tackling all this shouldn’t work, and yet it does.

Yet the movie never once feels preachy or hard to follow. You never get the impression this is trying to become an “elevated horror” movie because it revels in the genre. Yes, there are big, heavy themes here, but there’s also classic vampire mayhem that makes it feel right at home at a late night drive-in. But it all gels together so well! I couldn’t believe it.

But Coogler’s not the only one who deserves praise. This movie is so gorgeous to look at. Autumn Durald Arkapaw’s cinematography here is top notch. The movie is just gorgeous to look at every step of the way, even when things get bloody. The vampire mayhem, while not as big of a factor as one might expect from the marketing, gives us old school practical effects that i just loved. I gotta give praise to the use of goopy blood effects rather than the typical CGI blood that seems to be in every movie now. 

Everyone is acting their asses off here. I’m a little bias, because I love seeing one actor play dual roles, but Michael B. Jordan is so damn good playing both Smoke and Stack here. They each have different characteristics that Jordan pulls off so well, he makes this shit look easy. Jack O’Connell is definitely having fun as our main villain here, but also gives us so much more to this character that he sticks with you long after the credits roll. Delroy Lindo delivers a powerful story, yet also scores some of the movie’s biggest laughs (this movie is hilarious, a big aspect of the movie I feel hasn’t gotten enough praise). Hailee Steinfeld is always magnetic but gives so much more to her character Mary as well as Stack, giving the two a history that is loving yet also tragic. Wunmi Mosaku, someone I’ve never seen before, is also fantastic as Annie, Smoke’s ex wife who is very in touch with her spirituality, and serves as the guiding light to when things get bloody. 

Everyone is awesome, but special praise needs to be given to Miles Caton as Sammie. You could argue the Smokestack twins are the main characters here, but Sammie is the heart of the film, and Caton delivers an all timer performance. I was in denial that this was Caton’s debut performance. You would think he’s been doing this since he was a kid. It would’ve been enough to just nail the musical performances in here, something he does with ease, but he does so much more, and delivers every minute he’s on the screen. 

To my surprise, music and sound is actually a very large part of Sinners. I was bummed out that marketing and trailers gave away the vampire elements of the movie, but I really was not expecting how big music was going to be in this. In a movie that’s firing on all cylinders, the use of music here is still the biggest highlight of the film to me. Ludwig Goransson man. He’s been incredible for a very long time, but his work here might just be his masterpiece. Not only does he go through a range of music, from folksy blues to irish jigs to electric guitars (there’s a musical cue for the vampires that is perfect), he even combines them to fantastic effect. This is especially true in a scene involving a musical performance that is fucking electrifying, as it combines music from past present, and future so beautifully it needs to be seen to be believed. On paper, this could have gone so wrong. Instead, it’s a shining example of pure movie magic, the kind of shit that reminds you how powerful movies can really be. I was in awe.

But at the same time, that awe is there for the whole movie. I really just can’t recommend this enough. This is more of PSA than it is a review, and I’m okay with that. The words of a dork like me just can’t do this movie justice. If you love movies, you owe it to yourself to see this in theaters. Especially in the best format that you have access too. If you missed this last weekend, I urge you to see it before it leaves the premium formats soon (and stick around all the way through the credits). I know my review is late, but I’m almost glad I got to let this soak in and still feel the buzz that I had when I left the theater. This is Ryan Coogler’s masterpiece. Every emotion, every thing you love about movies, it’s in here, and we are so lucky to have it. I know I said I’m a huge fan of Ryan Coogler, but I think it’s time he enters the discussion of all time great directors. He has more than earned it.