Sinners
Whoa, this movie was phenomenal. I’m very comfortable calling it a cinematic masterpiece. The acting, the story, the cinematography and the music, it was all so incredibly compelling.
In its core, this movie is one big metaphor about adapting to a an oppressive culture. I’ll try my best to keep this review as spoiler free as possible. In all honesty, I’ll probably mark this review with a spoiler warning, just in case.
Now like I said, this movie is a metaphor about adapting. I think this message is very clear and very well executed. I especially think the characters of Sammie, Annie, Remmick, smoke and stack are very good at showing this theme.
Sammie is stuck between to worlds, wanting to keep his culture but also wanting to fit in and not disappoint his preacher father. Annie is very deeply connected to her culture and is the first one to realize the real threat, she’s also the character who refused to adapt to her oppressors. Remmick is the perfect example of a victim of this system and is now pushing the agenda of adaptation to oppressive culture. Smoke and Stack are perfect parallels, two sides of the same coin. Smoke wanting to be closer to his culture but accepts that he needs to adapt, Stack on the other hand accepts adaptation, which is clearly shown in his inevitable fate.
Now then, I want to dwell a bit deeper into the topic of Sammie’s character. He’s a great portray of being stuck between two worlds. He’s described as a musician who has the powers of bringing the spirits of the old and new together, but also the ability to lure evil. I think it’s very interesting how in the final confrontation he decides to pray, prayer has always been portrayed as a way to kill evil, but instead of the evil being killed or driven away, they join in, they join in on the prayer. Remmick explains that the same prayer was forced down his throat as well. Showing he is also infact a victim. It was so smart making the vamps Irish.
Before I end this review, I want to talk about the music and cinematography. The music really enhanced the feeling of the different scenes in the movie. The cinematography was beautiful. All of this mixed together made the movie feel so human in a sense.
Sinners deserves all the Oscar nominations and I really hope they win a bunch, the team really deserves it for doing such an amazing job.
In the end I think sinners is a compelling and amazing movie that really shows the complexity of cultural struggles. I recommend this movie to everyone and I really think you should watch it, at least once, even if you won’t enjoy it.