I’ve been wanting to see this one for a while, going back to it’s theatrical release. As usual, Life got in the way and I missed this highly praised little genre gem when it swept over our local Big Screen.
What I did not miss was the increasingly vocal and almost overwhelmingly positive scuttle-butt that was emerging in this one’s wake. My genuine curiosity had me convinced that eventually, some day, THIS plucky lil genre mash-up would sear itself across my looking-balls, so as a result, it’s one of those few films out there that I deliberately went out of my way to avoid, for the better part of a year, steering clear of as many spoilers as possible, As a result, I was left with only a vague notion about the story and characters, thankfully.
The one trailer I saw showed just enough to whet the appetite, to let me know that it was a period piece taking place in the deep south, starring rising star Michael B. Jordan (The Wire), with a sinister supernatural element, possibly vampires.
That’s about it…and I’m thankful that I was able to go into this one essentially blind as Sinners, for me, actually lived up to the hype.
Sometimes something will get released and will be the talk of the town for a good stint, leading to self-inflated expectations among some audience members that the movie simply can’t live up to. I’ve seen plenty of those and I’m happy to report that this…isn’t one of them.
Sinners takes place in 1932 and centres on the return of twin brothers / gangsters ‘Smoke’ (Michael B. Jordan) and ‘Stack’(also Michael B. Jordan) to their rural Mississippi hometown, after getting themselves into trouble working for Al Capone in Chicago, possibly having left a gang war in their wake. This is viewed through the naïve eyes of ‘Preacher Boy Sammie’ ( Miles Caton); a younger, oddly-gifted musician who’s also a cousin to the twins, who arrive suspiciously flush with cash and booze for sale. With ‘Sammie’ tagging along, the siblings secure the shady purchase of an abandoned sawmill from a shifty Klansman, with the intention of setting up a lucrative juke-joint, aiming for an almost exclusively black clientele and a celebration of the community’s music and culture.
As we weave our way through their preparations and interactions with friends, family and everyone in between, we are introduced to a dark, blood-thirsty force that sets its sights on the nocturnal festivities. As the night wears on, tensions rise as the enemy’s numbers climb, with more and more victims falling prey to the lurking creatures, turning on the desperate friends and family trapped inside. A tense cat-n-mouse game ensues, with generous helpings of spilled blood splashed around for fun.
So, after about a week of procrastinating after my Blu-ray copy was delivered, I finally said “Fuck it, today’s The Day!”. The clock hit 7am on a seriously blustery Sunday morning (my trailer is swaying!) and my feet hit the floor, which led to a pot of coffee, the pad and pen, and the hitting of the PLAY button.
The scribbles happened, again…
-Mikey B! X2. Not exactly ‘Wallace’ anymore. I was first exposed to Michael B. Jordan as an actor when he was a teenager playing ill-fated corner-boy ‘Wallace’ on the superb crime series The Wire (highly recommended). He has definitely grown into Leading Man status and it was interesting to have the film almost immediately open with him acting against himself, in two very different roles, in the same shot.
-The twin effect is virtually flawless. It really is, and I was looking. The quality never lets up. It’s not a new effect, but I always appreciate it when done well. Here…it was done well.
-Stack = clown. Smoke = business. A ‘Cliff’s Note’s breakdown of the twin’s personalities.
-‘Smoke’ teaches negotiation. Cool little scene. At one point, ‘Smoke’ enlists the aid of a teenage girl, offering payment for her to watch out for a contraband-laden truck, during which time he schools her on the art of negotiation, with an almost ‘big brother’ under-current. I found myself grinning as the scene played out.
-Already some impressive long takes. The cinematography was slick, captured on actual film (which I love!), and several sequences were long, unbroken and left quite the impression. Good stuff!
-Terrific production design. It feels like a well-worn, Depression-era deep south that’s actually lived in, warts and all. Very engrossing. I wouldn’t have been surprised to see the travelling carnies from the cancelled-too-soon Carnivale (2003-2005) sneaking through in the background somewhere.
-Delroy! Great performance. Very natural. Delroy Lindo (Domino) is a great actor who has been bringing gravitas and ‘tall man’ energy to the screen for years, but there was something extra to this role, a naturalness that added nuance to his ‘Delta Jim’ character.
-Just like that…vampires. Scary-looking fuckers too. After writer / director Ryan Coogler (Black Panther) effectively pulls us into the various ‘human drama’ interactions of our main characters, we get a shocking introduction to a mysterious and wounded man named ‘Remmick’ (Jack O’ Connell) appearing on a small farm, chased by a posse of Natives on horseback. The husband and wife farmers / Klan members unwisely harbour this strange fugitive, but inevitably fall victim, joining his blood-thirsty cause, whether they want to or not. And when fully changed and roiled up…they are scary-looking fuckers too, all nasty teeth and lit pin-pricks for eyes!
Incidentally, Ryan Coogler has freely admitted to being a fan of the Robert Rodriguez / Quentin Tarantino 1996 fugitives-meet-vampires guilty-pleasure romp From Dusk Till Dawn. If you understand how ‘tonal whiplash’ is handled in that flick…you’ll get an idea of what they’re going for here, just a bit more subtle.
-Clinton? Fascinating celebration of black music and culture. Trippy. And by ‘Clinton’, I mean funky Parliament lead-singer George Clinton, appearing during a lively and surreal ‘future and past’ black musician homage. I didn’t find anything stating that the garishly-attired guitarist we see does represent the punk-meets-rasta frontman, but I can’t see how that wasn’t the intent.
-The roof is on fire? As I immediately suspected, the very pointed imagery of the juke-joint’s roof bursting into flames and billowing away in a cloud of sparks, was a visual reference to a set of classic lyrics from the mid-70’s.
-Creepy ass white folk. Are there any other kinds?! C’mon now. And I say that as ‘white folk’, a full-on member of the club. These particular pale assholes just happen to be Nosferatu.
-Intimidating use of shadows. Eyes. Good lighting, especially when using characters eyes lost in shadow to get across a sinister vibe. It worked.
-WTF?! Spit scene. One character very deliberately drools into another person’s open, waiting mouth. I think it was meant to be hot and sexy…somehow. I like me some kink, but…c’mon! Ugh!
-“Not what it looks like.”?! Shit gets real. So, he’s splayed out on the floor over there, convulsing and spraying red. There you are, blood from nose to chest, licking your chops…and it’s NOT what it looks like? Hmmm…ok then.
-Definite shades of Dusk, Precinct 13, Cotton, Thing, Knight and 30 Days. If you are familiar with titles like From Dusk till Dawn (1996), Assault on Precinct 13 (1975, 2005), The Cotton Club (1984), The Thing (1982), Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995) and 30 Days of Night (2007), you’ll understand the vibes and themes influencing this flick.
-Now a celebration of Celtic music? Interesting. There are ALMOST enough musical numbers to qualify Sinners as a ‘musical’…and I despise musicals, but this one did interesting things in how the numbers were integrated. What also caught me off-guard was a strange flash-mob moment where the vampires counter the lively musical shenanigans inside the mill with their own most decidedly Celtic song and dance, all with glowing eyes and gnashing fangs. Somehow creepy and cool all at once, while somehow also respecting and acknowledging other musical contributions, as viewed through an African American lens.
-Delroy! Ya spurtin muthafucka! Classic Lindo! I bet he won’t even come back to clean that up!
-I always appreciate a good ole fashioned Klan massacre. Fuck the Ku Klux Klan, those ignorant, hateful, inbred, hillbilly motherfuckers…and everyone just like them!
Seriously.
Those vile pieces of shit are right up there with the Nazis (and eventually MAGA, just you watch), who we just LOVE seeing get taken the fuck down in pop culture. SO cathartic!
Here, a group of those assholes are shredded by unrelenting automatic weapons fire…and it was good.
-Very cool. Worth the hype. Another blind buy pays off. Very pleased with how this one came together. In fact, Sinners impressed me enough that I can definitely see myself revisiting this one sometime in the future. Glad to have it in the collection.
-But wait…there’s more! Mid-credit stinger entire scene, actual wrap-up. Clearly, this is a take-away from Coogler’s days on the Marvel pay-roll, the injection of additional material mid-credits. Here, though, it’s not just some cheeky sequel tease, or final joke. Here, it’s actually a full-blown, time-jump sequence that somehow winds up feeling like the true ending and not just some ‘throw-away’.
-And yes, there is also a post-credit stinger too. Naturally. This one affects the plot in almost no way…but it’s a cool little moment to end on. Tonally appropriate.
All in all, I really enjoyed Sinners, and got much what I was expecting / hoping for. It’s got a great cast that commits to the material, a basic enough storyline that clearly wears it’s influences on its sleeve, but pays homage nicely, giving us a new coat of paint on a familiar narrative, while also managing to do something new as well, especially where the fusion of deep-south black culture, music and the living dead were concerned.
Speaking of culture, another element that I found easy to appreciate was Coogler’s approach to a multi-racial, multi-culturally infused story. While the vast majority of this cast is African American, you also have your ‘whities’ (both good and bad), Asians (in a nice subversion of low-fruit stereotyping) and First Nations on display too, all with something to contribute to the story, instead of solely being there be propped up as an obnoxious and overbearing pawn for The Message.
On a technical level, this film is a step above. The camera trickery utilized to split Michael B. Jordan into the two very distinct brothers was highly impressive, all played out on a gorgeous backdrop of beautiful cinematography.
While basic, the script did a good job connecting the dots, with some clever pay-off’s hidden within. Tension and suspense were ably ramped up through the tight, and often clever, editing that played out over the 2 hour and 17 minute run-time.
If I HAD to bitch, like my life depended on it, only two minor gripes claw their way to the surface – A) it could’ve benefited from a MILD trim, maybe 10 minutes or so, just to further tighten things up, and B) some of the fire FX suffered from sub-standard CG, with one scene in particular, the horrid death of a key character, looking pretty rough.
And that’s about it for complaints. No, really.
This flick is worth the hype and I can readily recommend Sinners to just about anyone who likes genre movies, with emphasis on those who appreciate a good bloody vampire flick, blues music, the 1930’s, Michael B. Jordan and the past work of writer / director Ryan Coogler.
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