Packed with ideas and effortlessly engaging, Sinners more than lived up to the hype for me.
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Sinners feels like the exact thing the movie world needed. Admist talk of AI created movies, debates about the viability of theaters, the quick shift to digital after short theatrical runs, fewer and fewer movies being made for adults, and a dearth of original blockbusters, here comes Ryan Coogler with a movie that:
- Prioritized the theatrical experience by shooting in IMAX
- Is a completely original film from a filmmaker known for making movies via established properties
- Is unapologetically R-rated for almost every reason you can possibly imagine
- Is a massive box office hit that shows no signs of slowing down
- Is on track to be the movie of year regardless of what the Oscar voters eventually decide
Like a whirlwind of creative energy that reminded everyone, right this is why we go to the movies. So you'd think that with all of that hype it couldn't possibly live up to those expectations...well for me...it actually did.
The Setup
Taking place in 1932, the film centers around the Smokestack twins. Two WWI veterans and feared gangsters that have returned home to set up business in their native Clarksdale, Mississippi and open up a juke joint. But as the brothers try to piece together all of the people and resources to make the joint sing, and sort out their personal drama, forces beyond their control are aiming to raze the brother's hard work to the ground.
There are multiple dangers with reviewing Sinners. The first is avoiding spoilers since the film's biggest turns have mostly been kept under wraps and I don't want to do that to anyone on the fence about the film. The second is going too far down the rabbit hole because there's so many big ideas, concepts and big moments in this movie that slam into each other in messy and engaging ways. It would be easy to talk about this movie for an entire day and I mean that as a compliment. And the third and final danger is adding to the hyperbolic praise the movie has already gotten. And I'm probably going to fail at that third one because this is my movie of the year until further notice.
And to keep things as clean and spoiler-free as possible, I'm going to highlight the film's biggest selling points.
The Music
Ryan Coogler and composer Ludwig Göransson are already a match made in heaven, so I fully expected the music in this movie to be great whether it was performed at the juke joint. And as. expected Göransson delivers a score that is fully in touch with the rootsy American blues guitar, on a guitar that's prominently featured in the movie. There's also been a ton of time, research and care into updating and adapting old standards and making the music sound both modern and in line with the old sound.
What I didn't expect was how integral music is to the movie in about every way you can imagine. Thematically this movie is diving into the origins of Black American music, the centurious of pain that comes with it while also celebrating the release and joy it gives to anyone listening. The songs and score also hammer home character moments, boslter/enhance tension and allow Coogler to integrate his biggest directing flourishes with ease.
This movie hops around in tone frequently within the same scene and the score is what allows the movie to do that.
A Beautiful Mess of Ideas
Something I love about Sinners is how it is nigh impossible to pin down genre-wise. Part of what makes a lot of modern movies frustrating is that the feel constrained by their genre. There are plenty of horror movies that seem allergic to jokes or classy dramas that are chaste without reason. But Sinners? Sinners throws it all together.
That includes a healthy dose of humor that permeates the period melodrama before shifting into full-blown musical and then dipping into horror before exploding back into the genre later with mutliplen tense build-ups and payoffs with bits of action, romance and beyond weaving in and out.
And all of it worked, at least for me, because it really feels like Coogler is trying to capture the roller coaster/messiness that is being black in America via the lens of the Jim Crow era. Joy, pain, hilarity, music, love, sex, faith (old and new), money (and all that comes with it), the omnipresence of racism and violent conflict bouncing off each other as messily as they do in real life.
God-Tier Direction
Ryan Coogler thrives when he's given or gives himself challenges. For instance, in Creed he didn't need to do a simulated single take for one of the film's boxing matches. But man that scene pops. And as messy as Wakanda Forever is, the fact that Coogler put together a comprehensive blockbuster on that scale after unexpectedly losing his primary lead to a tragic illness and working around his new lead's personal beliefs about things like COVID vaccines is a miracle in and of itself.
And after this movie I figured we should just give him blank checks. At first glance, the film's primary technical challenge is making the Smokestack Twins work. Because you can always do the old shot reverse shot, but now we're doing stuff like having one brother hand the other one a cigarette without cutting. He didn't have to do that, but lord knows I'm impressed.
But for me, the movie's middle features so many intricately crafted scenes with wild camerawork that work completely in time with the music (a la Baby Driver but even more on beat) that I both wanted to know how they were accomplished technically and also didn't want to know.
There's one scene in partcular, you'll know it trust me, that is such a gigantic swing for a director to take on, and the fact that it not only works but was honest to goodness a near transcendent experience for me in the theater, is all credit to Coogler's craft.
As is the fact that these genre swings all work. One of the main reasons directors stay within their genre box is because not every director is well-suited to mutiple genres. M. Night is one of the best examples, because while he has the timing and pacing for thrillers, he can't stage or shoot action very well. Whereas, Coogler is drifting between musicals interludes, horror scenes, action, and beyond within minutes and it all works because Coogler knows these genres and knows how everything is supposed to look and feel. So we can shift from the intimate lighting of the juke joint for a barn burning song before drifing into the dark for a scene of tense terror.
The Whole Cast Is Spectacular
The last thing I'll fixate on is the movie's cast who all deliver exactly what the role requires and more. Michael B. Jordan is going to be the obvious standout since he's pulling double duty, but also because each of these twin brothers are so different while still feeling very similar. They're both hard men with vulnerabilities around each other and the women in their lives with Smoke being stoic and aggressive while Stack is more of a livewire and shit talker (also shoutout to the costuming department for capturing their personalities with their clothes). They're each fascinating in their own way.
The women of this film are all barn-burners whether its Wunmi Mosaku or Hailee Steinfeld tapping into her period piece burns a la True Grit going toe to toe with Michael B. Jordan. And we haven't even gotten to another scene-stealing turn from Delroy Lindo who shifts almost as drastically as the movie does from moment to moment. Just fantastic work from top to bottom.
The Verdict: Engaging, Energetic, Bursting With Life
Packed with ideas and effortlessly engaging, Sinners more than lived up to the hype for me. 9/10
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