Nate At The Movies

This review contains spoilers.

It seems fitting that I spent my Good Friday seeing a film called “Sinners”, and though Ryan Coogler’s original story rarely dealt directly with religion as the movie’s title would have one assume, Sinners was a thrill and a huge surprise regardless. I initially wrote Sinners off as more horror fluff, but once the Letterboxd rating started going up after its debut, I got interested, and I’m glad I saw it. Not only was Sinners a knockout horror flick with tons of great kills and gore, but its patience in its storytelling, its deep, detailed character development, and the prioritization of music as a powerful storytelling tool made it one of the best films of the year.

You wouldn’t think Sinners was a horror movie after watching the first act without having seen the trailer beforehand, because Coogler spends so much time with the main ensemble—especially Michael B. Jordan’s pair of dynamic leads—exploring their connections, motivations, and setting the scene for the horrors to follow. There was a surprising earnestness and heart to the opening hour, one that really endeared me to all of the characters—even the flawed Smokestack twins—and smartly didn’t bother with the vampires until the foundation had been laid.

The vampires in question, though, were also well-developed, preaching their own gospel and parading their own music around as they slowly formed their immortal cult. I found the vampires’ pitch of post-racial harmony in immortality to be really compelling, as it very effectively set up one of Coogler’s many theses—that, even though living has its share of unbearable pain, that struggle trumps avoiding it entirely (not to mention, the music played by the living is way better than the Irish folk vampire music).

Speaking of that music, it was the lifeblood of this film and one of the most creative uses of music I’ve seen in a film. Each song was a knockout punch—diegetic and otherwise—and its use as a driving force for the narrative and a microcosm of the generational race relations was outstandingly fresh. Cultural suppression and music as a means of rebellion were very key parts of the story, and executed so well. I loved how music was used both as a uniting force and a force that attracted evil, and some of the song sequences had me clapping and smiling (and dropping my jaw) in my seat. If this doesn’t win or get nominated for any musical Oscars next year, I will flip my shit.

Coogler’s patience in the first half of the film paid off perfectly once the horror began to unfold, and I appreciated Coogler concentrating that aspect of the film in a sweet half-hour or so near the end. Those sequences did lean towards the conventional, but boy if they weren’t incredibly entertaining and scored expertly by Ludwig Göransson (see “this better win some music Oscars” above). The ensemble cast all performed their butts off—I already drooled over Michael B. Jordan—but I also liked Hailee Steinfeld and especially Miles Caton (how has he not acted before? He was insane!).

The trailer doesn’t illustrate Sinners as the near-masterpiece that it turned out to be—equally scary, sexy, funny, and moving, with as much to say about the Black American experience as Get Out (and saying it just as eloquently)—but with way more vampires and a set list that’s going to imprint in my brain and have me tapping my foot for a week. WOW.