Sinners plus Short Takes on some other cinematic topics
1930s Racism, Music … Oh, And Vampires!
Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke
I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative. However, due to COVID concerns I’m mostly addressing streaming options with limited visits to theaters, where I don’t think I’ve missed much anyway, but better options are on the horizon. (Note: Anything in bold blue below [some may look near purple] is a link to something more in the review.)
My reviews’ premise: “You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”
(from "Garden Party" by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, 1972 album of the song’s name)
Sinners (Ryan Coogler) rated R 137 min.
Here’s the trailer:
(Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge its size;
activate the same button or use “esc” keyboard key to return to normal.)
If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy). To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows:
⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.
WHAT HAPPENS: In 1932 Clarksdale, Mississippi twin Black brothers Smoke and Stack Moore (both played by Michael B. Jordan, with enough differentiation so we can always tell them apart, even if it’s just the simple trick of the former wearing a blue cap, the latter a red hat) return home after serving in the Army in WW I, then heading to Chicago to work for the Mob. They come back with a lot of ill-gotten money, 500 bottles of Irish beer, and a plan to buy an abandoned sawmill from White racist Hogwood (David Maldonado) to start a hoppin’ juke joint for the joy of the local sharecroppers (the place is mysteriously in full operation the night of the same day they bought it). For music they recruit blues-guitarist cousin Sammie Moore (Miles Caton)—whose preacher-father Jedidiah Moore (Saul Williams) sees this music as the devil’s—and noted pianist/harmonicist Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo), along with Chinese shopkeepers Grace and Bo Chow (Li Jun Li, Yao) for provisions (plus a sign for the joint) and huge field worker Cornbread (Omar Miller) as the bouncer.
Each twin also meets up again with the woman he left behind: for Smoke it’s his wife, Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), a Hoodoo practitioner whose spells weren’t enough to keep their infant daughter alive years ago; for Stack it’s passing-for-White Mary (Hailee Steinfeld [with her own mixed-race heritage])—upset because of her mother dying and a friend’s lynching—who resents him for leaving her, even though he felt it was for her own protection from local racists who might burden her for being with Black folks. The joint opens to rousing success with a crowd of dancing patrons responding to the surging music (there are even past and future spirits in the crowd, summoned by the music, along with shots of the place on fire, seemingly a symbolic rather than actual image), including from married singer Pearline (Jayne Lawson) who catches Sammie’s attention; however, there are 2 problems emerging: (1) the patrons are mostly paying with the only legal tender they have, credits from the farmers who own the land where they work, so our joint owners aren’t making much of what they need to keep the place operational, and, more importantly, (2) an Irish-immigrant vampire, Remmick (Jack O’Connell), on the run from Choctaw hunters, takes refuge with a local couple, Joan and Bert (Lola Kirke, Peter Dreimanis), turns them into vampires with this trio then headed to the juke joint to play their folk music (they’re actually quite good with a version of “Wild Mountain Thyme,” juxtaposed against the marvelous blues of Sammie and Delta Slim), only to be halted from entering by Smoke (as with traditional vampire lore, they can’t come into a dwelling unless invited).
Mary knows the twins need the trio’s offered cash so she goes outside to talk with them, only to be bitten, leading to her then biting Stack. Smoke tries shooting her to no avail as she runs away as Remmick bites Cornbread. Smoke decides to close down early, but as the patrons and Bo leave they’re all bitten by the trio with Remmick later making the argument to Smoke that the eternal life of a vampire is an improvement over the racist-burdened lives these folks are currently living, a stance Smoke rejects. Stack revives but also flees after Annie throws pickled garlic juice at him, then instructs the others still in the joint how to kill these adversaries, even as Remmick (outside) tells them Hogwood heads the local Klan, plans to come in the morning to kill any Blacks still hanging around. ⇒He then threatens to attack the Chows daughter at their home, leading enraged Grace to invite the monsters in so they can be killed with stakes to the heart, which happens to many of the invaders, including Bo, but Grace, Annie, and Delta Slim also die in the melee as Mary escapes, Pearline is bitten. Smoke seems about to kill Stack, then all of the other vampires die outside due to the rising sun. Smoke sends Sammie away, then waits with a machine gun for Hogwood and his men, killing them all, even as he dies in the process as he sees a vision of his wife and child. Sammie goes to his father’s church, but instead of giving up the remains of his guitar (used it as a weapon against the vampires during the night) he heads North to pursue a life as a bluesman. Sixty years later (as we finally start getting some credits for this film), Sammie’s (now played by blues great Buddy Guy) old but still performing when he gets a late-night visit from Stack and Mary, with another offer of immortality (Smoke spared Stack back in 1932 with a promise he’d quietly protect Sammie); Sammie declines, as both of them say that day long ago was the greatest of their lives.⇐
SO WHAT? I must be honest and admit I’m not fully sure what to make of this film. I admire the audacity Cooger’s shown here by swirling together commentary on the blatant racism of the U.S. 20th-century South and an unexpected exploration of the intrusion of vampires into what seemed to be historical dramatic commentary (although you’ll find better insight than I was able to muster after my initial encounter with Sinners if you visit this short video [12:02, ads interrupt at 1:24, 7:18] about 10 things you probably missed upon seeing the film, which somewhat helps me in hindsight although I was aware of some of the aspects of what’s explored in this intriguing Ms. Mojo analysis). Yet, even as I easily applaud Coogler for taking a quite original stance with this story, one with little connection to his previous cinematic work (director-screenwriter of Fruitvale Station [2023], Creed [2015], Black Panther [2018], Black Panther: Wakanda Forever [2022], as well as producer of a few others including Creed II [2028], Judas and the Black Messiah [2021], and Creed III [2021]—if you’re willing to do some scanning for Two Guys reviews of these, see our Summary where the reviews are arranged alphabetically by stars rating [and who knows what other wonders you’ll find there while searching for the Coogler productions]), I’m not fully convinced the 2 main strands of this plot are properly connected, although I do find the “you’re better off as a vampire than who you are now in this oppressive society” premise to be an explanatory-twist on why many viewers find these creatures of the night to be such compelling cinematic presences, even if that’s just a big lie to entice more victims for Remmick’s troop’s necessary blood-feasts. (Overall, these vampires fit well with older screen portrayals, although there doesn’t seem to be the distinction shown in Dracula movies where some unfortunate humans are simply bitten, then turn into beasts themselves while others just die if the vampire slurps enough of their blood: specifically, we can note what a mess Mary made of Stack, yet he just joins these other vampires upon waking up, simply been unconscious for a while.)
I do think I follow what the film’s title alludes to in that we’ve been told clearly that all of these vampires are rejects from God’s afterlife-plans while the Moore twins are sinners in the eyes of the law due to their Mob work (they apparently also sinned against Al Capone’s crew by seemingly stealing all that cash and booze they brought back to the South), while even decent-living Sammie is seen as a sinner by his clergyman-father as his music is considered to be in league with the Devil. Yet, Sammie’s the only one of these major characters who isn’t already or becomes a danger to society or dies in the process of trying to rid us of these dangers, living to elderly status as a famed connoisseur of the blues whose devotion to his craft has given him all he ever cared for so that even the offer of eternal life from Stack had no appeal for him. This film has a sense of appeal for me, although I can’t fully feel satisfied that it’s completely integrated (just like Clarksdale of that era) even as that recommended video above does a decent job of almost convincing me to consider otherwise.
BOTTOM LINE FINAL COMMENTS: Sinners debuted in our domestic (U.S-Canada) theaters on April 18, 2025 , still in 951 of them (was shown a bit later in actual Clarksdale in a civic auditorium, although it was shot in Louisiana) to great financial response (taken in $275.7 million, $361.5 million globally so far). While that theatrical presence is rather large you can also find it on streaming where it rents for $19.99 on Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime Video (although, for some unknown reason I got a $4.50 discount for choosing Prime). It’s also earned high praise from the CCAC: positive reviews at Rotten Tomatoes are 97% while the Metacritic average score is high for them at 84%. Of the many who’ve offered support for this film, I’ll cite Stephanie Zacharek of TIME: “The key is to Sinners is that Coogler folds his ideas into the story subtly, rather than spelling them out Bible-pamphlet style. And though the movie takes place in the Jim Crow south, a place where Black Americans had to fight for their dignity, only to be kicked down again and again, its view of racial tensions—and, maybe someday, racial unity—is layered and complex. […] Sinners is about all that connects us rather than what divides us. Sometimes we find that communion in music, in dancing, in talking and laughing with one another. Our tragedy is that even then, somehow we forget that we all bleed red.” However, even with something approaching near-universal praise there are those who see it differently, such as Roger Moore of Movie Nation: “Coogler introduces themes, agendas and histories in collision with this film. But once ‘Sinners’ transitions from Black history at a crossroads into straight-up horror, nothing much is made of the Big Ideas in this ungainly mashup of ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,’ ‘Crossroads’ and ‘From Dust Til Dawn.’ […] But I still felt let down by the third act of ‘Sinners,’ almost embarrassed for a filmmaker with big ‘Mudbound’ ideas abandoned and flippant, absurdly over-the-top crowd-pleasing slaughter served-up instead.” I find some sense here.
I’ll leave it you as to whether you want to follow the herd on this film or let it pass (had the fight-with-the-vampires scene gone on for another minute my generally-unflappable wife, Nina, would have been out of the room; overall, she’s not all that keen on vampire tales anyway, just as many of you might agree with her) while I still ponder just how much credit to give it (3¾ stars?). While we’re all in contemplation mode, though, I’ll offer up my usual review-ending Musical Metaphor, this time 2 of them to match Coogler’s genre-mixing attempt, neither of which is directly focused on Sinners, but if you take some of the Doobie Brothers’ "Black Water" (1974 What Once Were Vices Are Now Habits album)—"Old black water, keep on rolling / Mississippi moon, won’t you keep on shining on me? […] And I ain’t got no worries cause I ain’t in no hurry at all […] Yeah, I’d like to hear some funky Dixieland / And dance the honky tonk / And I’ll be buying everybody drinks all around”—then add Paul Simon’s "Graceland" (1986 album named for the song)—"I am following the river down the highway / Through the cradle of the Civil War […] I’ve reason to believe / We both will be received in Graceland […] And she said losing love / Is like a window in your heart / Everybody sees you’re blown apart / Everybody sees the wind blow […] And my traveling companions are ghosts and empty sockets”—you get a gumbo that brings in Mississippi, Sammie, the post-Civil War Jim Crow era, Smoke’s broken marriage, and the bloodsucking beasts of the night. How about it, Mr. Coogler?
SHORT TAKES
Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:
A couple of options for your invested consideration: (1) IMDb's Five Things to Watch
on the Week of 6/16/2025; and (2) New and upcoming book-to-screen adaptations.
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