‘Sinners’ is a genre triumph from Ryan Coogler
The 1930s-set action horror film, which bursts with music, is one of the best of the year, and cements Coogler is one of the best directors working today.
Through his first four features — Fruitvale Station, Creed, and the two Black Panther films — Ryan Coogler has shown that he’s one of the best young directors now working. He’s extremely adept at assembling a great shot, getting strong performances out of actors — led by his primary muse, Michael B. Jordan — and building outstanding worlds, whether it’s Oakland, Philadelphia, or Wakanda.
Sinners, his new film, is Coogler’s first picture that’s been based on a completely original idea. And while I’m not going to call it the director’s best film — that’s still Creed — it’s probably the Coogler film that does the most, with the most ideas.
The film is set in the Mississippi Delta of 1932, and stars Jordan in a duel role as a pair of twin brothers, known as Smoke and Stack, natives of the Delta who were off for a few years being gangsters in Chicago. Now back and flush with cash, they dream of opening a juke joint, assembling a crew of old friends to put the whole business together in one day.
Most of the second half of the movie consists of that first night at the juke joint, which gets disturbed, by Klansmen who have… something else going on, it turns out. There’s one musical number that jumps back and forth in time to show Black musicians of the past and future, in a swing that I’m still not sure was brilliant or cornball, probably both.
Magnetic as the two Jordans are — this is a much better successful duel role than the two Robert De Niros in Alto Knights a few weeks ago — my favorite performance in the movie is by newcomer Miles Caton as Sammie, their young cousin who knows his way around a guitar. He at first seems inspired by Robert Johnson, although he ends up more resembling a different famous guitarist of the 20th century.
The deep cast also includes Delroy Lindo, in a memorable role as a town drunk; Hailee Steinfeld as a sometime lover of one of the brothers, and Wunmi Mosaku as the voodoo-practicing former partner of the other.
Written and directed by Coogler, Sinners builds an incredible world, pulling in elements from all sorts of established genres, from gangster pictures to horror, with a touch of mysticism, while looking amazing all the while. Yes, there’s commentary about race, as well as religion, but it doesn’t quite go in the direction you expected. It’s also occasionally funny, including way more references to cunnilingus than you were probably expecting.
At about the halfway point, I was sort of wondering whether Coogler could take all of these disparate ideas and put them together, but then he does, with an absolutely dynamite third act- then he follows that with what I can confidently say is the best mid-credits sequence in cinema history.
And then there’s the music. Like another film set in Mississippi around the same time, the Coens’ O Brother Where Art Thou, Sinners has assembled an eclectic mix of old music, from the traditions of blues, American roots music, and even Irish folk, alongside Ludwig Göransson's first-rate score. I’m not sure if movie soundtracks are ever best sellers anymore, or if they compete for Grammys, like O Brother’s did, but this one deserves both.
The clothes, designed by Black Panther Oscar winner Ruth E. Carter, look fantastic, starting with the suits Jordan wears.
Sinners was shot with IMAX cameras, and I can’t recommend enough seeing it in an IMAX theater, preferably with an enthusiastic audience, maybe even late at night.