SINNERS. To turn any original movie into a hit these days is a dicey proposition at best, given the fearfulness and uncertainty of the industry (as it once was and perhaps never again shall be), let alone the ambivalence of an audience hamstrung by distractions, paranoia and the omni-present spectre of intellectual property as guiding principle. And to go about the hitmaking with an inter-war horror-drama about the genesis of American music — well, that would require the steeliest of constitutions. Fortunately for all of us, Ryan Coogler seems unbothered, if not unburdened, by the expectations of others.
And so, at the beginning of an already unparalleled career, Coogler has rendered unto us Sinners, a vampire musical with more style and substance than many of his more established peers could hope to deliver. It would be satisfying to be able to say I saw it coming but I’ll take the pleasure of a pleasant surprise over smugness any day. Because as much as I’ve admired Coogler’s work, so much (almost all) of it has existed within the strictures of established franchises or content-factories that I could not help but wonder what a work of pure imagination might entail. And learning that it would entail Michael B. Jordan playing twins in a Mississippi juke-joint-set bloodsucker showdown, I wondered if the ambitious altitude of the premise would be its own undoing. It’s an unfair and preemptive sort of criticism largely couched in my general disdain for a certain comic-book based cinematic universe.
The distressing verisimilitude and verité style of Fruitvale Station (2013) certainly suggested the emergence of a distinctive American filmmaking voice, just maybe not the one Coogler has turned out to be. Pivoting from the intimacy and immediacy of that project (a re-creation of events that occurred in his hometown of Oakland), Coogler set about reinvigorating a half-century old franchise that, if most of us are being honest, seemed well past resuscitation. With Creed (co-written with Aaron Covington and with the tacit approval of Sylvester Stallone), he proved that he could make a Rocky movie that isn’t about Rocky (within reason and Stallone’s requirements, presumably) and still rouse an audience with thrilling fights and the indomitable underdog spirit of the original. And then he went into the house of Marvel and made a superhero movie that, despite what I see as its inescapable corporate shortcomings, changed the way millions of people see the business of caped adventures. Nobody wants to burden an artist with “voice of a generation” talk, but this guy knows how to navigate the labyrinthine corridors of power. And now he’s turned the goodwill generated thereby into one of the most exciting movies in a long time, and it’s a genre movie that demonstrates the transcendent, transformative power of specificity as universality.
Sinners, set in the Delta in the fall of 1932, introduces us to the brothers Moore (Smoke and Stack), played with gravitas, humor and subtlety by Jordan. On the heels of a productive period in Chicago, the twins have returned home, cash heavy and ambitious, to open a juke joint and bring good times to the disenfranchised. This entails a little early bloodshed, some awkward reunions, a guitar-phenom younger cousin named Sammie (Miles Caton) and, soon enough, the presence of blood-eaters with a message of inclusion and equanimity that, to be fair, comes at the cost of mass murder. All of which is a lot of water for any movie to carry, let alone with as rich a visual style and self-assured sense of history as this one evinces.
Because while Sinners is a vampire movie (and one that takes place essentially in one day), it is also about diaspora, music as an immutable voice and source of communion, sex and sexuality, criminality, brotherhood, intolerance, temptation … well it’s pretty much all in there.
One might think it would be difficult not to be distracted by the trick of Jordan’s doubling, but through the subtlety of his performance and of the technology deployed to support it, it almost immediately becomes an inextricable, vividly colored thread in the tapestry of the whole enterprise. And it is bolstered by a tremendous supporting cast, including Delroy Lindo, Hailee Steinfeld, Li Jun Li, Omar Miller and Caton, performing his own guitar and vocal parts (among many others).
The cinematography by Autumn Durald Arakapaw, somehow both cool and visceral, blood-drenched and stately, looks unlike anything else 2025 is likely to offer, and is supported by impeccable design, editing and scoring to create an immersive, transportive experience that reminds us of the exceedingly scarce but unparalleled, undeniable bravado and boldness of capital-H Hollywood moviemaking. It’s not a case of not making them like they used to, but of forging an artistic path forward that is as challenging as it is accessible, as full of sorrow as it is of fun. R. 137M. BROADWAY, MILL CREEK, MINOR.
John J. Bennett (he/him) is a movie nerd who loves a good car chase.
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For showtimes call: Broadway Cinema (707) 443-3456; Mill Creek Cinema 839-3456; Minor Theatre (707) 822-3456.
This article appears in ‘If Only We’d Done More to Save Her’.