Sinners Sins So Well
Featuring Michael B. Jordan in dual roles as dangerous twins who return home to the Mississippi Delta with ill-gotten gains to set up their own juke joint, writer/director Ryan Coogler's Sinners is one part period drama which examine the lives of the tightknit community and one part supernatural thriller as something evil is drawn in by the music of the twins' cousin Sammie (Miles Caton) all taking place during a single day and night.
The first half of the film is largely focused on introducing Sammie, using his relationship with his father to explore the film's ideas on music, and the return of Smoke and Stack who call in old favors after buying an old sawmill and setting up shop for opening night. Both brothers will see old flames as Stack has a run-in for the passing Mary (Hailee Steinfeld) and Smoke reconnects with his wife Annie (Wunmi Mosaku). The core group of characters is added to in Delroy Lindo, Jayme Lawson, Omar Benson Miller, and Li Jun Li and Yao as local Chinese shopkeepers.
Filled with great music, strong performance, and interweaving small stories within the core group of characters, Sinners would work perfectly well if it had stayed with the dramatic ebbs and flows caused by the twins return. The ambitious Coogler, however, has something more in mind with the arrival of a trio of vampires led by Jack O'Connell, representing their own internal community that while murderous appears no less united (and in their own way even loving), drawn by the music who will feed on the juke joint's guests and then turn their attention to the core cast through those they love most.
The film has some complicated ideas on music and sin. The blues music we see performed fills the characters with joy that is palpable on-screen, but without the twins' return and Sammie's performance, the vampires (haunted by much older Irish melodies which connect them as well) aren't drawn to the juke joint like moths to a flame. In Coogler's tale music is itself supernatural, even transcendent, but it also opens doors to unforeseeable danger. Still, Sammie chooses this path over that of a preacher's son as, murderous bloodbath and all, the greatest night of the young man's life is that night at the juke joint when glory, fate, and death all come calling.
Sinners is far more than a horror film, but it is a great horror film. Once the movie turns into horror, it doesn't abandon the well-structured lives of the characters which only adds drama to events which are no less tense or entertaining leading to fight for survival through the night and a prolonged epilogue you don't want to miss during the closing credits.
Watch the trailer- Title: Sinners
- IMDb: link
