Sinners

“there are legends of people born with the gift of making music so true, it can pierce the veil between life and death.” 70mm rerelease at the sold out vista theater was incredible. haven’t seen this film since it came out last april and man it is just so good. i’m in my last quarter of college and one of my classes right now is titled “afrofuturism and the visual cultures of horror”. this class taught by the brilliant professor john jennings has further deepened my understanding and comprehension of the themes and concepts at play here. my enjoyment of and appreciation for this film skyrocketed beyond what i already thought was the top echelon of 21st century filmmaking. ryan coogler utilizes the classic siege vampire formula and remixes it into a dialogue on cultural appropriation and resilience and transformative power of music and the soul. on the surface, this can be enjoyed as a really awesome action/thriller, however, viewing it as only that is doing yourself a complete disservice. vampires are blood-suckers and feed on the blood of others to survive. they take life and trap their souls into a life of immortality not of their choosing. this concept being applied to the blues with remmick being obsessed with sammie’s ability to keep his culture alive, in the past, present, and future. just really terrifically told. while the vampires are scary, the scariest part of this film to me was a very brief scene in the beginning with slim, stack, and sammie. this scene really stuck with me on this viewing. delta slim recalls the lynching of his partner in great detail and while he is speaking, the sounds of the violence that occurred are ringing in the background. what made the scene so impactful is rather than wallowing in silence following the retelling, delta slim begins to hum the blues, reshaping the trauma into the power of music. delta understands the impact and importance of its preservation and sees that power in sammie. what a masterpiece. “for a few hours, we got to be free.”