Directed By Ryan Coogler

Starring – Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, Jack O’Connell

The Plot – Trying to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brothers (Jordan) return to their hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back.

Rated R for strong bloody violence, sexual content and adult language.

Sinners | Official Trailer

POSITIVES

Over the course of a career spanning five directorial efforts, Ryan Coogler has established himself as one of the most consistent auteur visionaries working today, and while he left impactfully game-changing work in the depths of “Black Panther” or “Creed”, there’s proof to believe that “Sinners” might be his magnum opus, when all is said and done, bringing so much meaning and emotion to vampire flicks in ways that make this feel like a freshly innovative shot of adrenaline that the subgenre so desperately needed. Beginning with the script, on the surface level, Coogler could easily rest on the laurels of making this a film driven by the racism of a Jim Crow south setting, but the racial divide really serves as an allegory for the bigger, bolder picture, with uncovered thematic impulses in everything from money serving as the root of all evil, to environmental integration, to even socialized freedom driving many of the material’s focal points, all the while taking ample time within a more than ambitious 132-minute runtime to establish value to the abundance of characters, good and evil, who make up this decorated ensemble. As to where other movies recently have struggled with the notion of earning an over two hour runtime, “Sinners” paces itself smoothly throughout the duration of its opening hour, in order to not only gauge the atmospheric discourse between these two brothers and their unwelcoming trip home to the Southlands, but also these vital interactions between them and other meaningful characters from their pasts, in order to shape the personality and emotionality of the appropriately named Smoke and Stack. Coogler proves that he’s a masterful storyteller in these pocketed tales of trauma and overcoming adversity, with cleverly inserted sound deposits of the articulated environments that clue audiences into the horrifying realities of these past moments, without deliberately flashing back to them, all the while pushing compelling emphasis to its breaking point with the way Ryan dramatically outlines these defining moments within the lives of these characters, bringing just as much gripping dramatics as the intense action moments pertaining to the undead, with an overarching vividness that effortlessly pits audiences in the depths of the memories. It also helps that Coogler’s remarkable direction faithfully maintains the mesmerizing investment that comes with his films, here with both a spellbinding entrancement to the cinematography shot breathlessly by Autumn Durald Arkapaw on IMAX cameras, as well as the underlining strings of urgency and vulnerability that are conjured exceptionally in a single stage setting that continuously feels like they could blow the roof off of this club at any given moment. Coogler’s biggest impacts as a commanding force definitely come during those dramatic blow-off moments, particularly once the proverbial shit hits the fan with this unforeseen outside force continuously reeking havoc on their patrons, but there’s something equally endearing to the way Ryan steers his extensive ensemble, giving them hopes and dreams of a better world, but also the obscured scars of the ghosts of the past that each of them are forced to live with. This makes the characters feel like living, breathing entities within the depths of a story that we immediately understand as fictional, despite a more than accurate depiction towards racism in the deep south, giving them not only meaningful value in ways that legitimately earned despair from within me, any time one or more of them are lost to these soulless bloodsuckers, but also inscribes an outreaching value to the distance of the storytelling that we can feel even in the moments before the film starts that we’re not privy to, and it really proves that the three years since Coogler’s last directing effort were spent to flesh out layering and tangibility to a story that feels more personal to him than any previous movie that he has helmed. The value of music also deserves much praise, as it’s essentially used as both a weapon of sorts to the varying dynamics of the two established cultures within the film, but also cleverly as a key to the past and future that helps unlock the supernatural elements of this film’s established plot. In reality, this whole review could be spent overwhelmingly gushing about longtime Coogler collaborator, Ludwig Goransson’s wide range of genre-bending instrumentals that simultaneously conjure a particular place in time, while offering as many as three films of versatile compositions, but it’s all the more impressive how Coogler utilizes music as the one universal language that connects so many diversely conflicting cultures, with expressively imaginative and evolvingly intoxicating performance sequences that help clue a greater insight as to why these vampires have sought out this particular environment. And of course, there’s the tremendous value in performances from a cast that truly bring the vibrancy of these combustible personalities to life, with everyone worthy of commendable praises. Whether in the undeterred commitment of the great Delroy Lindo transforming into this unapologetically alcoholic blues musician, Hailee Steinfeld’s R-rated radiance as this sultry vixen one second, while an angry ex-lover the previous, or even Jack O’Connell’s time-of-his-life scenery chewing turn as the movie’s antagonist, everyone accompanied is a blast to experience during their own pocketed scene-stealing moments, and while this certainly feels like a team effort above all else, it’s Michael B. Jordan and first time actor, Miles Caton, who seemingly shine above the rest. In playing double duty here, Jordan captivates in conveying the subtle differences between these brothers, with Smoke emulating the ambitious and empathetic side of the brotherly duo, and Stack representing the greedy and unforgiving side of them, and while Coogler’s initial introduction to them sees the former wearing a blue cap, while the latter wears red, perhaps as a means of representing the duality of man, Jordan delights with a turn that showcases his determination and endless charisma accordingly, impressing with two gifted performances for the price of one. What’s remarkable about Caton’s work here is not only how he’s able to hold his own against a gifted ensemble that would shatter lesser quality actors, but also the strength and resiliency that come so costly to this preacher’s-son-turned-musician, cementing a transcending turn that will inevitably serve as the first step to a prestigious career.

NEGATIVES

Very little to scoff at here, but “Sinners” does flounder on a couple of key decisions that served as internal conflicts to its own sturdy foundation, particularly those momentarily distracting to my interpretation in experience. The first of these comes during the film’s opening minutes, where it commits the most agonizing sin (For lack of a better word) to me in cinema, involving an opening sequence that is followed by an accompanying scene that flashes “One day earlier” text across the screen. It’s probably not an issue to most audiences, but I’ve always hated it because it inevitably spoils and shows more of its hand, big or small, than intended, and I wish the movie just began with the introduction of the brothers, instead of this other character and where they’re left the day after this carnage takes place. In addition to this, the film does involve two scenes during the mid-credits and post-credits, which picks up many decades later in the life of a character, and while I totally understand the intention of the additional scene, I don’t feel like either of these moments deserved their own separate focus away from the rest of the long-form film, a fact that is all the more flatly climactic because of that separation. My personal opinion is that both of these scenes could be omitted from the finished product, and the movie would lose absolutely nothing from it, however if Coogler absolutely required them, just simply attach them to the end of the film, without the need for them to be separated scenes. Failing to do so brought back feelings of many Marvel movies, where I stayed throughout the credits, only to be disappointed by a quick scene that might hold meaning to the film, but did little for me in entertainment value to justify anyone staying over to see it. Finally, while nearly all of the technical matters to the film added concrete value to its presentation, these instances involving C.G blood deposits took violent sequences a bit over the top in artificiality, to me, making the film fall under a bit of a campy spell that didn’t feel particularly endearing to the kind of movie that Coogler and his production assembled here. Perhaps the intention might’ve been to revel in the ridiculousness of predecessor vampire flicks before it, but I constantly felt that this movie was above all of that, and despite the C.G use on character designs effectively reaching a believability and tangibility within its artificial constructs, the blood squirting left so much more to be desired, without any semblance of naturality to the ways they’re utilized.

OVERALL
“Sinners” shows acclaimed director, Ryan Coogler, taking a proverbial bite out of conventional storytelling, injecting new life to the ages old survive-the-night vampire format, with an abundance of thematic heft and profound emotional meaning in the confines of a Jim Crow south that makes this feel like a new breed above the recent rest. With spellbindingly gripping direction from the auteur, as well as ferociously sharp performances from a cool and sexy ensemble, Coogler’s latest is not only the runaway smash of the spring, but also a new measuring stick for a career already filled with cultural and cinematic achievements.

My Grade: 9.1 or A-