There’s something epic about Ryan Coogler’s ‘Sinners,’ even though the entire story unfolds over just 24 hours in a single community in the Mississippi Delta in 1932. There’s a bigness to the way Coogler sets each scene and introduces to us each character that while the film may feel contained, the themes and the imagery goes way beyond the story’s premise of twin brothers who come back from Chicago to open a juke joint for the black community of their hometown. There is an exploration here of race, of freedom, of history, and of resistance. While the trailer may lead us to think this is a period vampire movie with two Michael B. Jordans (playing the aforementioned twins) but this is a Ryan Coogler movie. It’s a lot more layered than this.
The film begins with a flashforward, a shot of the finale, with Sammie arriving at the church where his father is a pastor, bloodied and dirty and carrying a broken guitar. His father takes him in the congregation and pleads for him to leave his life of sin: of alcohol, of sex, and of blues music. We then shift to the day before, when Sammie sees his cousins, Smoke and Stack (Jordan in a dual role), who have returned from Chicago to open a juke joint in a former sawmill owned by a racist white man.
In one day, the twins recruits the members of their joint, which include musicians like Sammie and Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo), local Chinese merchants Grace and Bo (Lu Jun Li and Yao, respectively) for supplies, Cornbread (Omar Benson Miller) to act as bouncer, and Smoke’s estranged wife Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), who is also versed in the occult and knowledgeable in the supernatural.
In one day, the twins recruits the members of their joint, which include musicians like Sammie and Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo), local Chinese merchants Grace and Bo (Lu Jun Li and Yao, respectively) for supplies, Cornbread (Omar Benson Miller) to act as bouncer, and Smoke’s estranged wife Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), who is also versed in the occult and knowledgeable in the supernatural.
While the juke joint brings in the community to eat, drink, and sing and dance to the blues and jazz, a young woman from Smoke and Stack’s past joins the revelries, Mary (Hailee Steinfeld). With both brothers dealing with the strained relationships of their past, Mary and Annie, and Sammie trying to catch the attention of Pearline (Jayme Lawson), a married singer, trouble begins to brew as a vampire circles the sawmill, hoping to get an invite into the premises.
You wouldn’t think, during the first hour, that this is a vampire movie. Except for a brief scene introducing the Irish vampire Remnick (Jack O’Connell), the first hour of the film is dead-set on building this vast world and its histories. Smoke and Stack are out in town bringing the people they need to make the juke joint work, and each encounter offers a world of stories that adds layers and depth to this film. Set during the era of the Ku Klux Klan, Prohibition, and blatant, racially charged oppression, ‘Sinners’ carves out a space of what freedom looks like for an oppressed people. And for the cotton-picking farmers of the Mississippi Delta, it’s drinking, dancing, and singing along to some good ol’ country blues that can set a spirit free.
The symptoms of oppression hang heavy throughout the film but never overpower it, so it never feels preachy. Instead, it creates layers and textures such as the presence of the Chinese merchants, which is historically accurate, and the very colorful history of Steinfeld’s Mary, who also shares the same sort of roots her character has.
By the time the vampires come and make their attack, the film has turned this fiction into something tangible and real; the stakes are high and true, and while the film can lean a bit too close to camp, there’s a gravitas to the whole proceeding that keeps it grounded and its footing secure.
Michael B. Jordan is excellent in the dual role of the twins, showing two sides of the same coin: the serious Smoke and the more carefree Stack. He’s a great anchor for the film’s hopes and dreams with an excellent counterpoint by Miles Caton’s Sammie whose own hopes and dreams are filled with idealism as compared to the cynicism of the twins. Delroy Lindo is always a joy to watch but the ones who steal the show here are Steinfeld and Mosaku. Both women have done their assignment and slide into any of their scenes and take the spotlight. Both women steal their scenes (hard to do with Jordan, Lindo, and Caton’s incredible singing) but Steinfeld and Mosaku are completely synched to Coogler’s vision that they make their screentime shimmer with energy.
Coogler uses the film’s mysticism to create extraordinary moments into the film which elevates his vampire movie into an allegory of black oppression and their unyielding desire for freedom. The success of the juke joint invaded by a white vampire is not just coincidental. The symbolism is just one of many that subtly makes ‘Sinners’ more than your usual popcorn fare.
The gorgeous music of Ludwig Goransson and the crisp, powerful cinematography of Autumn Durald Arkapaw completes the set for this incredibly enjoyable film, especially if seen on IMAX.
And don’t forget to stay until the very end, as there is a mid-credit and end credit scene for full effect.
My Rating:
Sinners is now showing in cinemas. Check showtimes and buy your tickets here.
