Sinners

It never struck me until sitting down to write this that Sinners is Ryan Coogler’s first original story. It’s a truth which feels so false when you look back at the distinctive and mesmerizing worlds he’s built in his previous films; it’s hard for me to imagine a rendition of Fruitvale Station, Creed, or Black Panther without the care and precision of Coogler’s eye. Sinners is yet another expertly-crafted world in his filmography, and it’s perhaps his best yet. The tone is set early on: violent, tense, haunting. Coogler takes us to Jim Crow-era Mississippi to tell the story of two feared brothers returning home. Michael B. Jordan plays both, Smoke and Stack. At first, the only differentiator between Jordan’s two brothers is the accessories they wear; Smoke dons a blue flat cap with tie to match, while Stack sports a fedora and tie both colored red. But MBJ’s acting brilliance very quickly distinguishes the two characters even further. He brings both the stoic family man Smoke and the cheeky troublemaker Stack to life with two fantastic performances. Despite being brothers, both characters are wildly different, and Jordan delivers an arguably career-best performance as both. spoilers below this point Sinners operates in the supernatural, and it does so quite well. Coogler creates some truly terrifying sequences laden with tension, and crafts an impressive level of horror for a director new to the genre. But as a whole, Sinners doesn’t truly feel like a horror movie as much as a movie with horror elements. And I wouldn’t even say a horror movie was Coogler’s intention. Sinners at its heart is about the importance of maintaining a strong connection to your roots and your creativity in the face of changing landscapes. The film violently yet beautifully explores how assimilation can force one to bury their true self deep, never to resurface. Coogler’s vampires symbolize the evolving world, preying on and wiping out communities rich in culture and history. And the promise they make is undeniably attractive, especially when framed through the lens of oppression. Those willing to let them in can fight back against those who have hurt them, or so say the vampires. There’s a reason we see the first vampire Remmick celebrating Irish music and culture outside the bar with the others. He himself belonged to a minority oppressed by a larger entity, and he turned to fight back. All it costed him, was his identity. Coogler beautifully weaves in the concept of the vampires having a collective consciousness to touch on how the mainstream often feeds off the products of the minority; Remmick is drawn to the twins’ bar by the sound of Sammie’s music. He says he only wants Sammie’s songs, not his stories. Similarly, society only cares for the end products that come out of cultural hubs like the Sinners bar, and not the history that shaped it. Sinners is a masterful tale of violence and history, and it is Ryan Coogler’s crowning achievement.