Amongst his many other achievements with the Black Panther films, Ryan Coogler, in telling the story of Wakanda, managed to make Marvel feel *legitimate*; stately and seemly and above reproach. Now that he gets to cash the blank cheque that that success bought him with Sinners, he has, to my great delight, gone entirely the other way, a maximalist vampire thriller built out of sex, sweat, blood, and some great damn music. Sinners is beautiful in its grit and viscera, balancing grandeur with grime, laughs with sincerity, and cleverness with lizard-brain thrills and scares.
Headlining all of this is Michael B Jordan in dual roles as identical twins Smoke and Stack, brothers returning to their hometown in the 1930s Mississippi Delta after having spent some years in Chicago where they managed to steal enough money to open their own juke joint in an old sawmill back home. Though the vast majority of the story takes place over just 24 hours, Coogler starts things at a pretty measured pace before the twins meet any bloodsuckers, Smoke and Stack gathering supplies for their opening night – food, drink, décor, and, most importantly, music. It’s here that Sammie (Miles Caton in a barnstorming debut film performance) comes in, a young but gifted blues musician whose songs are so brilliant that they open the door to supernatural powers.
It’s these powers that bring the vampires, led by the Irish-American Remmick (Jack O’Connell), in, wanting to harness Sammie’s magic for their own ends. As you’ll know if you’ve seen the far-too-revealing trailers, Remmick’s hunt for this musical power brings total chaos, even turning Stack and his white old flame Mary (Hailee Steinfeld) to his devilish cause. Coogler never takes the easy way with this story – his vampires have a lot of the usual subtext, but are fundamentally here to represent belonging, and how finding belonging in America involves sacrificing huge chunks of yourself.
There are so many clever, deeply thought-out insights about race and nationality in America here and all the grey areas therein without Sinners ever stopping to become a ‘lesson’ for the audience – it’s far too busy being a bloodsoaked tribute to music and cunnilingus to make time for something so trite. If it can feel a bit slow in the earlier daytime sequences, Coogler turns the rocket boosters on once we’re finally in the juke joint and it feels amazing that something this lush and horny made it through the studio system.
A show-stopping oner through the party in full swing is the standout of the whole film (and this is before the vampires even arrive), Sammie’s music and soul summoning other musicians through the ether from past and present, America and abroad, until traditional Chinese dancers are sharing the floor with ‘80s hip-hop DJs. It’s both a technical marvel and genuinely moving and, alongside a spectacular and eerie Irish jig organised by the vampires outside (Coogler does great stuff with the ‘must be invited in’ vampire rules), more than makes up for a kinda messy final action blowout.
With Caton as the breakout star here, Coogler still makes plenty of time for everyone else to make a hell of an impression. Jordan is proper movie-star great as the twins, Smoke deadly serious while Stack has more fun but does worry about disappointing his ‘big’ brother, while Steinfeld adds a whole new string to her bow as Mary, always ravenous regardless of vampire status. As the big bad, O’Connell is the best he’s been since probably his own breakout film Starred Up, building Remmick into a vampire who is less a seductive Dracula type and more a dancing demagogue powered by a wheedling, insistent indefatigability.
Shot on IMAX film (the only movie releasing this year to do so), Sinners looks spectacular. Coogler and DP Autumn Durald Arkapaw make the whole thing feel *huge* and pack the frame with the sort of colour and light and depth that is often so lacking in major releases these days, bringing the sweltering Southern heat right into the cinema. It’s all capped off by another fantastic score from Ludwig Goransson, melding all of the multinational musical influences that Coogler has been inspired by here – don’t be surprised to see him competing for his third Oscar come next year’s awards season.
Sinners is big, bold, truly original, and packed with so much stuff that I haven’t even got around to mentioning the great supporting performances from Delroy Lindo and Wunmi Mosaku. Maybe not every ingredient in this stew gets a chance to fully shine (I have to say, for a film at least dipping its toes in the horror genre, it really isn’t at all scary), but it all comes together into a deliciously rich and vibrant dish.
Jack Blackwell – Film Reviews 