Sinners

🏆 | Favorites | 2025 - First Watches | Released on Max and I was sooo excited to finally watch it as I wasn’t able to see it in theaters but it makes me want to watch it again but in 4k. The boldness of Ryan Coogler to combine a movie that explores deep themes of spirituality, assimilation, racism and more all blended into a vampire film is impressive and ambitious and it works so well. It is so bold and I loved it. Sinners also uses music in a beautiful way. On the surface it just helps add tension to the vampires scenes and drive the plot but what I believe it shows is the powerful gateway music can open. The reason why Remmick found Sammie is because of his beautiful music, opening a spiritual channel between the natural and super natural. It is also a way of expressing cultural expression and I was jamming out to that the whole time in the middle portion before all hell broke loose. It also serves to show how music can lead to an exploitation. The biggest theme I felt that was present was assimilation. How I looked at it is the vampires fell into the oppression and sort of accepted that they needed to turn/join the white Americans instead of unite with African Americans over common struggles. The biggest scene showing this is where Smoke and Remmick (plus the side characters) discus in the doorway of the juke joint. Remmick wants them to let go and join them meanwhile Smoke has the ability to say no and he does. I believe this is to show how powerful music was for black expression at the time as the juke joint is where they play their music, being able to say no to let the vampires in empowers them and gives them an ability to hold onto what little they have.  Michael B. Jordan also gives his A game. His ability to play Smoke & Stack was great and I really like when actors have to play two different people and I think here he does an excellent job at making each feel distinct. The other side characters are also incredible and I loved all their performances. I do have a few flaws with this wonderful movie although most are personal and very minor. I don’t see sex scenes in movies as the best way to drive a plot point and it seems kind of weird to me, I also did not like the aspect-ratio changing in certain scenes, I maybe likes it in 1-2. My biggest issue was I felt the pacing was okay, the 3rd act was great but I felt Coogler’s ambitions did not let him bring everything he needed to a proper conclusion. Although I understand these are minor I still loved this movie and will probably be my top movie of 2025 unless something really impressive passes it.