Sinners

This banged. One of the best movies you’ll see all year. So unique too, Ryan Coogler does such an incredible job introducing poignancy in specific scenes. Watching Slim bring himself to tears during a story about his old friend being lynched and then jumping into song to cope is a brain-chemistry altering moment. And the fact that this is a vampire movie, but we don’t see a single vampire until like 90m in is a testament to how different this movie is. Acting is phenomenal throughout, shoutout Michael A and B Jordan. Camera work was also great, made something as simple as Lisa walking across the street to get her mom, and her mom walking back across the street, a captivating experience. In terms of cinematic and directorial choices, this was avant-garde as hell, and it paid off so well. And then on top of that, you have some excellent commentary and so many themes you can pick apart. The constant fight against cultural erasure, the allure of escapism and selling out, connecting to ancestral roots, spotlighting some gorgeous blues music and its influence, and so much more, all done in the context of Jim Crow era Mississippi. I’ve got a lot more Reddit threads to read about this, but needless to say that this one is a classic.