Sinners

i think it’s easy to view this movie simply has a “vampire horror” period piece, but analyzing it more historically opens up the meaning to really about the power of culture and community. for the sake of this review, i’ll ignore the metaphor of the vampires and instead focus on the historical metaphors. while the opening sequence explicitly states how music brings people together, both good and bad, the movie consistently uses narrative elements to develop characters and connect to broader themes. we see this from the contrasting of different types of ideologies throughout the film (power, religion, hate, love) and through the distinct relationships between characters. the audio dialogue could be hard to follow at times but the sounds and use of music accentuates all the thematic elements the cinematography is where it really stands out. the use of IMAX to accentuate certain scenes and the color grading bring forward common themes and archetypes associated with what’s happening. there’s so much hidden meaning hidden in the framing. i think MBJ does a fantastic job at balancing two very distinct personalities and the ensemble cast embodies the history and meaning of the time period.