Sinners

Plot

In 1932, two brothers Elijah “Smoke” and Elias “Stack” Moore, return to their native Mississippi town, with stolen money from Chicago gangsters.

They buy a local sawmill from a wealthy landowner – and decide to open up a Juke Joint for their fellow black community.

With help of their cousin Sammie “Preacherboy”, and other musicians in the community – the night goes off well, with only a slight financial hiccup…

But then something sinister is lurking in the shadows, is about to make its presence known.

Direction

Directed by Ryan Coogler, this is clearly a passion project of his. His attention to detail with the culture, the community and the era is near flawless.

Even changes in aspect ratio at some points in the film is wonderfully achieved, and you can tell the man really knows his craft!

Cast/Characters

Michael B Jordan plays the dual roles of Smoke and Stack – or as they are known, the ‘smokestack’ twins.

Hailee Steinfeld plays Mary – a former girlfriend of Stack. She is the only white woman within the group of blacks, as she feels safe with them as one of her grandparents was black.

Wunmie Mosaku plays Annie, Smoke’s estranged wife. She engages in voodoo, giving Smoke a “mojobag” he wears around his neck to keep him safe. They had clearly lost a child at one point, and are both still grieving.

Newcomer Miles Caton plays Sammie. His musical ability is one of the focal points of the film.

Delroy Lindo plays Delta Slim, a local blues musician

Jack O’Connell plays Remmick… more on him in the breakdown.

Breakdown

If you have seen this film, I have put a very intentional error in how I wrote this as not to give away an important part of the film.

This film has a very “two for the price of one” feel to it…

First, Michael B Jordan playing twin brothers is exceptionally well done. I had almost Tom Hardy from Legend vibes. A small improvement on his performance would potentially have each of the brother have a different cadence to their voice – this could have distinguished them more easily. Aside from their choice of colouring (stack wears red, smoke wears blue), it is hard to separate them as they both seem to have similar personalities.

Secondly, there are is a very obvious shift in tone and genre to the film halfway through – and that is from ‘an almost love story to the deep south and blues’… to Vampire Horror.

Yes you read that right. At the halfway mark a group of vampires attack the Juke Joint and start turning the guests into vampires.

Prior to this change, the film is practically flawless in the look and feel of Mississippi 1932. There are even some ‘behind the scenes’ cultural references (that I speak about in my podcast) that without being a historian, you would never know about.

The first introduction of Remmick, who is the primary vampire – is at the 45m mark, and he is first introduced to the smokestack brothers at the 1hr mark. There is quite a decent amount of back and forth between the vampire group (who slowly grow as they attack members of the Juke Joint group) before the ‘big fight’ – and even then – that is fairly short. Some improvement on the pacing would have fixed this tremendously.

While it is suggested that Remmick is a centuries old vampire via some of his dialogue, he never really feels much of a threat. Even though through him, most of the townsfolk do turn – his on screen persona never really has the cinematic villainy that a film like this needs.

Another problem the film has is the pacing. The ‘growing’ the vampire group takes too long, and the final battle is over and done with before you really get invested. The film also doesn’t really know how to end either. Once Remmick has been killed off, there is another “shoot out scene” with the twins and the towns KKK unit.

After this then there is even a credits sequence set in 1992.

One big up was the music. It is hauntingly brilliant, and most of it comes from the character of Sammie, or “preacherboy”. He is the smokestack’s twins cousin – and he too loves blues music (much to the disapproval of his father – the towns preacher). He is a ‘secondary’ lead character – and is the primary reason that the film flash-forwards to 1992 in the closing moments. There is a breathtaking long take during one of his musical numbers that takes the audience through time and culture of music.

Even the vampires get some brilliant moments of singing and use of musical instruments, and it is clear that director Coogler is a lover of music.

Overall

My own big issue with this film is me.

I’m Australian, I’m white, and I have no real love or passion for music. All the things this film was passionate about, I don’t have the same emotive responses to.

Due to my own inability to connect with the material, I struggled with this one. Also the direct almost carbon copy of other films does weaken its originality.

Still I would recommend this, as it is a solid movie.

3.5/5