Director Ryan Coogler has graced us with a feature you can really sink your teeth into…
Words: Divine Maguraushe
The cinematic landscape this year has flickered with a slow-burn, but finally Director Ryan Coogler has graced us with a feature you can really sink your teeth into…
Sinners reunites powerhouse combo Ryan Coogler (Creed, Black Panther) and Michael B. Jordan (Creed) with this American, period piece horror film for the ages. Picture Mississippi blues, the sweltering Southern heat, melancholic style, and an unexpected supernatural evil all within a two-hour run time.
Two sides of the same coin, gangster twins Elias "Stack" Moore and Elijah "Smoke" Moore played by Michael B. Jordan, return to their hometown in the American Deep South of the 1930s to escape their troubles and start again only to be met with a sinister evil they couldn’t have seen coming.
Michael B. Jordan’s depiction of the twins is so strikingly different that you’re left almost forgetting that they’re being played by the same person. Stack, a charmingly wild and reckless soul and Smoke, a serious, threatening and driven by the need for power and success.
They team up with their young cousin, aspiring musician Sammie played by stunning newcomer Miles Caton, to open a Black-owned, blues-infused juke joint for the local Black community under the noses of the Ku Klux Klan. The brothers recruit a team to assist with catering, security and musical performers to fill up the establishment – day turns to night and the opening of the juke joint arrives.
Think clean-cut camera work, breath-taking shots, visceral visuals and unmatched cinematography, you’ll barely be able to take your eyes off the screen.
Director Ryan Coogler is a masterful storyteller and expertly lays the groundwork in Sinners to represent a Black American experience within the Jim Crow era. Coogler provides a deeper understanding of racism, segregation and the wanting of freedom in a society designed to keep Black people in chains (literally and figuratively). One major thing that sets Sinners apart, and this one’s for the film nerds out there, is that it’s the first film to be filmed in both 15/70mm IMAX and Ultra Panavision 70mm – two of the largest formats in cinema, giving the audience a real immersive feast for the senses. Think clean-cut camera work, breath-taking shots, visceral visuals and unmatched cinematography, you’ll barely be able to take your eyes off the screen.
Cut-back to the juke joint which is bursting with frenetic energy, drinks begin to flow and the music erupts with an absolutely unforgettable performance from Sammie which still has me listening to Caton’s beautifully rich bourbon-soaked voice repeatedly on Spotify. It’s impossible to imagine another actor nailing this role. This being Miles Caton’s debut, he took a swing which didn’t miss and this may have been the most transcendent moment of the entire film because it felt as if the audience was transported to a time of music, and music alone. Showcasing the cultural movement of the blues in a way I’ve never seen so eloquently and beautifully directed by Coogler. Scoring a huge success like Oppenheimer, it was no surprise musical maestro Ludwig Göransson was involved in creating the masterpiece blues soundtrack that shook up the genre and reverberated throughout the cinema speakers. As music was one of the main driving forces, a part of me does wish this was shown a bit stronger throughout the film.
Still, aligning with that notion, Sammie’s music being so transcendent allowed him to actually summon spirits of both past and future blues heritage creating an eclectic sound of new age blues meets old to join the captivated crowd of the juke joint. However, things take a dark turn as Sammie’s performance somehow draws the attention of villain Remmick, played by Jack O’Connell, who arrives with two other strangers who couldn’t help but evoke similarities that of Jehovah’s Witness’s knocking at your door asking you to believe in a higher power.
With his Irish toe-tapping diddly-dee vibe, you could say O’Connell’s character was the devil dressed in a Mumford and Sons suit, and who is not quite intimidating enough for the twins but enough to cause them hesitation to let him in. The film continues to deliver on telling the history of racism against Black Americans as Remmick negotiates by praising Sammie’s supernatural talent and claiming he can offer them freedom, and an escape from racism by providing an idealistic utopia where race doesn’t matter and equality is at the forefront…but at what cost?
Sinners knows just how to build the right amount of tension, setting the scene, building the characters and backstory, that with an hour left to go, we’re thrown into a boiling pot of utter chaos and dripping, gothic horror.
Without going too deep into the details to spoil this for fellow cinema goers, Sinners knows just how to build the right amount of tension, setting the scene, building the characters and backstory, that with an hour left to go, we’re thrown into a boiling pot of utter chaos and dripping, gothic horror.
Star-studded cast members Hailee Steinfeld, Wunmi Mosaku, Jayme Lawson, Omar Miller, and Delroy Lindo, elevate the film that’s already giving us everything it’s got. Plus, a special guest appearance of real life blues musician Buddy Guy adds an authentic touch. Ryan Coogler’s vision of portraying pain, history, culture, music, and fighting for what is yours is all on point.
This film had such soul, that the real sin would be to miss it.
Sinners is showing at Broadway Cinema and The Savoy, Nottingham.
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