Written And Directed by Ryan Coogler
Jedidiah (to Sammie): "You keep dancing with the devil... one day he's gonna follow you home."
April has been a month that the WB can feel pretty good about. First there was the success of A Minecraft Movie and now there's the success of Sinners. With the latter, it's more of an achievement, considering that it's an original piece.
Taking on the role of twins Elijah "Smoke" Moore and Elias "Stack" Moore, Michael B. Jordan certainly had his work cut out for him but he got to dominate this film twice. Smoke and Stack were war veterans and criminal entrepreneurs. They were also about to be changed forever.
In the backdrop of the Jim Crow era Mississippi, the twins were eager to set up their own business. The business being a juke joint for the black community based in a sawmill they had purchased from racist landowner Hogwood (David Maldonado). He would be a later problem for the twins.
The most prominent problem of course would be vampires. Specifically an Irish one named Remmick (Jack O'Connell). Accompanied with Joan (Lola Kirke) and Bert (Peter Dreimanis), Remmick wanted the talented Sammie (Miles Caton) for his own personal reasons and he was willing to cause a bloodbath in order to get it.
By the second half of this movie, Stack got turned into a vampire by his ex-girlfriend, Mary (Hailee Steinfeld) and Smoke's wife, Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), singer Perline (Jayme Lawson), bouncer Cornbread (Omar Miller) along with shopkeepers Grace (Li Jun Li) and Bo Chow (Yao) were among the casualties and converted. There's a good time spent on developing each of these characters and their relationships with the twins and their cousin, Sammie.
In terms of vampire stuff, I like that the movie skirted between some blood and gore but also held back on showing the actual conversion process itself. The end of this movie had very few survivors, a bittersweet conclusion to both twins bond and a nice scene where a certain Klan got their just desserts.
- A mid credit sequence showed an older Sammie (Buddie Guy) encountering Stack and Mary. Sammie moved to Chicago.
- Smoke wore blue and Stack wore red, which was a good way of telling them apart. They also left flowers for Mary's recently deceased mother.
- Remmick had been fleeing Cherokee vampire hunters before he turned Joan and Burt.
- Sammie had the ability to summon spirits, which was drew Remmick to him.
- Standout music: Rod Wave's Sinners, Hailee Steinfeld's Dangerous and Jack O'Connell leading Will Ye Go, Lassie Go?
- Chronology: 1932 Mississippi and then Chicago over sixty years after the events at the barn.
Sinners might be the strongest movie released so far in 2025. It's certainly been the most talked about that's not from an IP. The dual performances from Michael B. Jordan certainly elevate the movie but there's not a foot put out of place here. This film definitely deserves the hype's it getting.
Rating: 9 out of 10
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