Directed by Ryan Coogler

Last night, I was lucky enough to attend an opening night IMAX screening of Sinners, Ryan Coogler’s genre-defying, jaw-droppingly good vampire epic. My expectations were numerous and sky high. Every one of them was met.

What launches as a slow-burning character drama seamlessly transforms into a full-on, blood-soaked emotional and spiritual reckoning.

Sinners is the first film to be theatrically released in two different aspect ratios (a feature only available on certain screens — see it at an IMAX if possible), and part of the wonder comes from dissecting Coogler’s formatting decision-making scene-by-scene. P.S. more on his thought process in this viral explanation video.

THE PLOT

Set in 1932, Sinners follows infamous identical twins Smoke and Stack (Michael B. Jordan x2) as they return home to the Mississippi Delta after a stint with the mob in Chicago. They use dirty money to buy an abandoned sawmill and open a juke joint “by and for the community.” And while you might need a second to adjust to the “they’re both MBJ” twin effects, the illusion quickly fades to reveal two fully distinct people — one brooding and cautious (Smoke), the other barely contained and chaotic (Stack). Jordan finds a way to bring each of them entirely to life.

Coogler gives the first half of Sinners over to atmosphere, world-building, and character cultivation — time well spent with magnetic performances and beautifully visualized sets. After some questionable roles in the past few years, Hailee Steinfeld has found her place as Mary, the woman Stack left behind but still loves. Wunmi Mosaku stars as Smoke’s past love — and the mother of a baby girl they lost years earlier. And the film introduces Miles Caton as Sammie Moore, the twins’ cousin and up-and-coming blues musician with an incredible voice.

The cast is fleshed out by married store owners and friends of the Smokestack Twins, Bo and Grace (Yao and Li Jun Li, respectively) and Sammie’s married love interest Pearline (Jayme Lawson). Frequent comedic relief is provided by Cornbread (Omar Benson Miller) and Delta Slim (the incomparable Delroy Lindo).

Despite flashes of what’s to come flecking the opening scenes, we’re sufficiently engrossed in the story’s universe when the dramatic turning point brings extraordinary change to the story and tone. The shift comes in the form of Coogler’s mind-bending musical masterpiece scene, a journey through culture and time dropped in the midst of what appears until then to be a well-crafted but typical historical drama. It’s something you must experience to understand, but the simple explanation is that Sammie’s transportive music brings residents of the past and future to Club Juke, dancing to the rhythm of an interspacial performance. The song ends in literal flames and from that moment, nothing is the same.

As it turns out, his singing is so beautiful that it becomes a siren call for a group of well-disguised vampires, promising harmony and hoping for an invitation inside. They’re led by the terrifying Remmick (Jack O’Connell) and they’re on the hunt. Their entrance to the narrative breaks the spell and the film’s second half explodes into action, death by wooden stake, and vampiric bloodshed.

THE THEMES & MESSAGES

Tales of vampires are as old as storytelling itself, and Coogler kept the staples intact: Garlic, sunlight, and wooden spikes are all deadly to the creatures — but that’s where the movie’s clichés end. Sinners maintains our collective understanding of vampires so we can focus on the film’s other themes, like music as a spiritual power, the transformation of identity after struggle, the possibility that religion may be a comfort but not a true answer. Whether freedom and liberation share a definition.

By the time the story resolves, we’re exhausted from the conflict but exhilarated by the questions it invoked.

FINAL THOUGHTS

In a recent interview, Coogler said “This film is many things, just one of them is a horror.” Sinners is about family and legacy, it’s about music, it’s about the melding of the past and future. It’s about money, race, class, and humanity. It just also happens to be a vampire thriller. If you’re not sure all of this can be true at once, I’d recommend seeing it for yourself.

this movie is good.

My rating: 4.5/5

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