YOU KNOW WHAT’S BETTER THAN ONE MICHAEL B. JORDAN? TWO.
Sinners is a blood-soaked and biting love letter to cinema and the inestimable power of music, transcending time and culture. The highest-grossing original movie in America this decade, it marks the fifth collaboration between director Ryan Coogler and actor Michael B. Jordan, who earned critical acclaim for Black Panther, Creed, and Fruitvale Station, among others.
The star-studded cast also includes Hailey Steinfeld (The Edge of Seventeen, True Grit), Wunmi Mosaku (Loki, Deadpool & Wolverine), Li Jun Li (Babylon, Quantico), Omar Benson Miller (8 Mile, CSI: Miami), Delroy Lindo (Malcom X, Crooklyn), and American guitarist and singer Buddy Guy.
Michael B. Jordan delivers one – or should I say two – powerhouse performances, portraying the ruthless and ambitious twin gangster brothers, Smoke and Stack. They clawed their way out of their hometown buried deep in the sweltering Mississippi Delta, managing to work with Al Capone in Chicago, before swaggering back home, swimming in money. They’re armed with a mission to set up a lucrative blues jukebox club establishment. Their guitar-strumming cousin Sammie (Miles Caton) will be the star of the show. Their endeavor goes awry in epic fanged proportions as vampires hurl themselves into the story – the climax reeks of genuine terror.
The film relishes the reveal of the twin trick, but it was a clever and intentional part of the plot. Jordan manages to breathe life into two very distinct, breathing people that the audience grows strongly attached to, making the denouement hit like a speeding truck.
Time is intentionally dedicated to setting up the characters and their meaningful development, even indulging in long tracking shots as they cross the street to deliver a message, truly plunging us into the sand-swirling, cotton-picking 1932 American South where everyone has a drawl, sometimes to the point of incomprehension. Yet they’re dripping with that famous Southern charm, and I was completely swept away by the soul-stirring blues and foot-stamping Irish folk that lace the film together.
Ludwig Göransson’s time and genre-bending soundtrack is a masterpiece, and in my opinion surpasses the Oscar award-winning score he wrote for Oppenheimer – it’s the film’s beating pulse. Every single song is catchy and memorable. “I Lied to You”, sung by gospel prodigy Miles Caton, is absolute cinema, truly embodying music as a unifying force for humanity. Sinners is in fact Caton’s first film role.
I also loved the diversity in the film – it doesn’t make a big deal out of shoving the different characters down our throats, at a time where a lot of films seem to be race-swapping or forcing characters to be a different ethnicity for the sake of checking a “diversity” box ; they’re all a necessary thread in the tapestry of the film, and historically accurate, respectful portrayals. There’s an impactful homage to the collaboration between the Chinese immigrants and the Black community under Jim Crow, as well as the Choctaw Nation. The freedom and fellowship-loving villain, portrayed by Jack O’Connell, is terrifying yet nuanced, throwing into bloodstained relief the discrimination and oppression the Irish faced upon their arrival in America.
The film was obviously made for the big screen, and is an “out-of-body experience”, according to the director of photography, Autumn Durald Arkapaw. She is the first woman director to work with real IMAX cameras, as well as the first woman director to work on a movie shot on both IMAX film and the Ultra Panavision, respectively presenting both the tallest possible aspect ratio (1.43:1) and the widest (2.76:1).
The lighting and wardrobe, reminiscent of the gangster family epic Peaky Blinders, as well as the thoughtful symbolism, made this film an absolute treat to rewatch, further amplifying my appreciation for Coogler’s craft. He shows rather than tells an analysis of the sequelles of colonialism, white supremacy, and segregation, appreciating that the audience will put two and two together without wasting time to spell it out. I simply couldn’t look away during the film’s 2 hour and 17 minute runtime, refusing to blink for fear of missing a single frame.
I scrambled to watch this film twice in theaters (once in IMAX) and the ending sequence was one of the most cathartic cinematic experiences I’ve ever had in my life. Make sure you stay for the post-credits scene. It truly adds another dimension to the story.
Sinners is an epic masterpiece. Catch it before it leaves theatres – it was meant to be experienced on the big screen.
