Sinners - A Movie Review

2 movie theater trips in one week? You're welcome world, I'm single-handedly saving cinemas. I didn't know if anything would top my Warfare experience earlier in the week, but Ryan Coogler's newest feature film did just that. Coogler is an excellent film-maker most known for his Creed trilogy, Black Panther movies, Judas and the Black Messiah, and Fruitvale Station. But Sinners is a a major shift from his previous work, but familiar seeing him work with his #1 actor again in Michael B. Jordan. This is a film set in the Mississippi Delta in 1932 that touches on deep themes in a very fun and entertaining way - through Music and Vampires.

The Plot (Spoiler-Free)

Twin Brothers Smoke and Stack (both played by Michael B. Jordan) return to their home in the Mississippi Delta to open a new "Juke Joint" for Blues Music. Their cousin Sammy (Miles Caton) joins them to showcase his musical talents and get away from his Preacher Father for a night. They recruit some old friends and musicians and Opening Night is a smash hit. All is well, until a group of vampires arrive trying to turn this party into a reckoning.

The Cast

Michael B. Jordan -- Smoke and Stack
Miles Caton -- Sammy (aka Preacher Boy)
Hailee Steinfeld -- Mary
Wunmi Mosaku -- Annie
Delroy Lindo -- Delta Slim
Jack O'Connell -- Remmick
Li Jun Li -- Grace
Jayme Lawson -- Pearline
Omar Benson Miller -- Cornbread

A convincing argument can be made that this is Michael B. Jordan's best film performance of his career. Coogler gets the best out of MBJ every time they work together -- Killmonger and Adonis Creed would be my 2 other favorite performances of his career. He's reaching the highest levels of movie stardom. But there are no bad performances in this film, a testament to the cast's talent.

The biggest standouts to me were Miles Caton and Delroy Lindo. This was Miles Caton's first acting role -- which is shocking when you see his screen-presence and hear his voice. He was cast for his musical ability, but is a great actor too. The Big Picture Podcast host Sean Fennessey said he looks like a young Derek Luke on their Sinners pod and I completely agree. His singing voice and speaking voice are beyond his years, and to act alongside Michael B in your first film ever is wildly impressive. Delroy Lindo plays Delta Slim, an older musician Stack recruits for their juke joint. He's the comedic relief (and is fucking hilarious) but does so much more in the movie, and he really delivers a powerhouse performance.

Jack O'Connell plays the main antagonist of the film, and was unknown to me as an actor. His performance is great and also brings an entirely new theme into the story, and the way Coogler uses his character is super unique and fascinating. Hailee Steinfeld is also awesome in an unexpected way. She gets some racy dialogue and is a major factor in the sexiness of this movie, which is a major component to it's success. Wunmi Mosaku's Annie is big to the cultural element of the film, and she's kind of the connective tissue tying differing themes into each other. Omar Benson, Li Jun Li, Jayme Lawson all do a good job as well, but are smaller players.

General Thoughts/Takeaways

(no spoilers for actual events of the movie)

If you watched the trailer for this movie, you are probably expecting just a vampire horror movie with good lead actors. This is way more than that. The number one thing I thought about leaving the theater was how massive music is to the story -- I don't feel like it's marketing was focused on that aspect at all. (and is probably why the the reactions have broadly been: "this was so unexpectedly good"). Music is pumped throughout the whole film, all genres, cultures, eras, etc. are represented and blended together. And it literally drives the entire plot. Blues music is the main focus, it's what Sammy plays. But if you look at the official Spotify soundtrack for the movie, you'll see songs from B.B. King to Young Dolph to Zach Bryan to Metallica. The vampires sing Irish music/dance Irish jigs for Christ's sake. Ludwig Goransson is the composer and he fucking rocks.

Another thing I like is something that I complimented Warfare on last week -- in a genre that has so many prior movies, it feels completely original and unique. While staying true to the source material, in this case vampire movies, because it matches up with the core elements while adding in their own flare. Coogler had a very clear vision of how to make this stand out, and it shows. He lays the groundwork early of who these people are and what world we're in, often time's without having a character say a thing. (show don't tell as they say).

Some other positive takeaways I had were that the last 60ish minutes of the movie are just really fucking good. It sounds simple, but if the last hour of your movie is great, a less than awesome first four is way more forgivable (that's not the case here, I liked the first hour too). But it isn't just non-stop action, they take breaks to slow things down or build suspense, making the ending even better. There's also a scene about halfway through, right before the conflict kind of gets going, that really lets the music rip and blends everything together, which was pretty damn cool. The fact that it really isn't that scary of a movie is huge for me, being a scary-movie-pussy. It's exciting, has rich themes, great tunes, great villains -- which checks a lot of my boxes.

One negative, that I'm attributing to a bad movie theater projector/screen, was that I didn't think the movie visually looked great. The podcasts I've listened to since make me think it was a St. Charles issue, because they compliment the visuals, but it was very dark. Even scenes that seemed like they would have been better lit just weren't, and there are other visual aspects that I think were intended to look a lot better than they did in my theater.

Really good, original, unconventional blockbuster that I was pleasantly surprised by. When the Rotten Tomato/IMBD scores were flying around praising it to the highest degree, I was VERY shocked, and kind of skeptical. This surprised me in a very good way and is a movie I'd rewatch again in a heartbeat. I think it'd be a really good date night movie too -- it's not too dark or scary in my opinion. Highly-recommend just as I did Warfare - 2 very different movies no doubt, but great in their own rights. If you're looking for more fun and thrills, Sinners is the one for you.

(Ideal scenario is watch the first 4 minutes of Warfare for the vibes, then next door to watch Sinners).

Score

89/100

How it stacks up with the rest of Bean's Blogs Movie reviews below, plus links to my favorites at the very end of this blog. Comment below your thoughts if you've seen Sinners.

Warfare: 85/100
Hit Man: 90/100 (I like Glen Powell, sue me)
Twisters: 82/100
Carry-on: 72/100
Wicked: 70/100
Snack Shack: 74/100