Sinners

Written & Directed by Ryan Coogler; Starring Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, Miles Caton, Jack O'Connell, Wunmi Mosaku, Jayme Lawson, Omar Miller, Buddy Guy, Delroy Lindo; Cinematography Autumn Durald Arkapaw; Edited by Michael P. Shawver; Music by Ludwig Göransson

What if music was so powerful it could break the barrier between the living and the dead? Music so resonant that it transcends space and time? Music so specific, so defined by its artists and their circumstances, that you couldn’t imagine yourself or the world without it?

That is at the center of Ryan Coogler’s latest film, Sinners. Taking place on the night of October 15, 1932, it stars Michael B. Jordan as Smoke and Stack, twins who’ve returned to Mississippi after spending time up north as Chicago gangsters. The pair decide to put what they’ve learned, what they’ve stolen, and all the money they have into building a juke joint. Complete with Irish beer, Italian wine, blues music, dancing, and gambling, the pair envision a southern club that would rival the ones in the big city. But just as their opening night starts to take off, trouble arrives in the form of vampires. 

In an interview with Deadline, Coogler said: 

“It was my realization that I had been on this path of what I could make and what I wanted to make. And realizing they had all been in the service of stories that were outside of myself…

…I still haven’t brought something that was just me. And how funny is it that when I say, Hey, I’m making a horror movie, and people are surprised. But if you know me, I love those movies. If I had to reckon with the fact that the audience doesn’t truly know me. And I got scared that I would look up and be 50 and would still be in that situation. And by then, I might not have anything to say. So the movie was made because I had to make it right now. And with the people that I wanted to make it with, it had to happen now. Or if not, it wouldn’t. I feared that. And that was why now.”

Coogler’s clarity about his situation and his honesty about the reasons behind this film are refreshing. While he's had an excellent track record, he was always bound up in other people's stories. Sinners is Ryan Coogler’s first attempt at a completely original story, not based on real life events or a previous intellectual property. As much as Black Panther or Creed have a specific artistic touch, we truly didn't know the “real” Coogler until now. How many directors have gone down the path of work for hire for so long that they lose their ability to make their own original work? Compare this to Matt Reeves who on the Team Deakins podcast talked about a drama he was writing for years, and has still yet to get it made. Meanwhile, all his time is tied up by The Batman and Planet of the Apes. As much as he’s a competent director, no one really knows who he is outside of the IP sandbox, and if he keeps going at that pace no one will ever get a chance to know him either. 

All that to say Sinners is bursting with a passion and clarity of vision that’s immediately clear to the audience. Coogler’s voice feels far more relaxed, spending roughly the whole first 45 minutes to an hour on allowing his characters to talk, drive around, connect and enjoy themselves with a sense of patience that all of his previous films lack. We’re not racing to the high adrenaline moments of vampires, but are in the midst of a slow and thoughtful appreciation of life in this era and the freedom that music provides. 

At its core, Sinners is about the specific relationship between blues music and black liberation, the connection between an aesthetics that’s birthed from a specific racial positioning and the opportunity for that aesthetic to break open a new reality and a new way of being. Roughly half way through the film, Sammie (played beautifully by Miles Caton) takes the stage to sing in front of a crowd for the first time. The scene is presented as a one-er, moving from Sammie to the dancers in the crowd, inside and outside the juke joint, throwing in traditional African dancers from the past and present day electric guitar wielding artists. As we watch these drastically different visuals come in and out of frame, Ludwig Göransson’s score blends the different music of each era, transforming the blues into not just a genre but an anthem that announces the existence of these people, their whole humanity, and their past, present and future. Its a scene that captures what music can do with so much force that it actually ruptures the narrative open and introduces our advertised vampires who come to take Sammie. 

The vampires by this point don't represent the more common themes of sexual repression or lust, but the virus of colonial assimilation. Headed by Jack O'Connell's Remmick, the vampire horde sings and dances just like the people trapped inside the juke joint, their music is Irish jigs rather than the blues. One by one, as the vampires start to attack and turn their victims, their music and entire being is replaced with something else, an identity that isn't quite theirs anymore.

While Coogler's other films are not based on his own original ideas, they do all still contribute to these themes as he's evolved. Like Creed and Black Panther, the question of blues music here is about what we inherit from our cultural past and what it means for it to define us. The expression of the music sung throughout, both by the black characters inside the juke joint and the vampires outside, is a tug of war over your own identity and whether being assimilated into the fold of predators is worth it if freedom is otherwise illusory or impossible.

Throughout the film, Jordan's Smoke and Stack bicker about how much money this place will make. While Smoke doesn't want to be charitable, Stack reminds him of all the work these people have done all week and that they've earned a night of community and joyous expression. But even if not for the vampires, when this night was over, everyone would have to return to sharecropping and plantations, their expression of freedom in art would not immediately translate to actual liberation. The vampires provide an escape with a steep cost, they introduce the temptation to surrender who you are for a sliver of freedom, to assimilate into their predatory fold.

Coogler shot the film for IMAX, but unfortunately I don’t have a premium large format theater that can support the full 70mm experience. If you’re like me, you’ll also have to settle for the standard theatrical experience, and with that in mind I do think there are some jarring cuts between shots clearly meant for IMAX and shots that are in more standard theatrical aspect ratios. One particular moment that comes to mind is the introduction of Remmick, who literally jumps into frame as the aspect ratio shifts and it took me out of the movie for a moment until I processed what was going on. Hopefully that's not a problem for all theaters, and it'll certainly be something that's less jarring on a home video release.

Sinners is phenomenal. Easily Coogler's best film so far, and one of the best of the year. We've seen a lot of vampire movies the last couple years, but this is also far and away the best of them.