"SINNERS" - REVIEW
Ryan Coogler is a distinct and deeply talented filmmaker of inestimable value, both in terms of content as well as commerce, and we are all so lucky and blessed to be alive during a time in which he is making films, and making an impact both on screen and off.
Coogler’s 2013 debut feature as a writer/director was the scrappy, moving FRUITVALE STATION, a slice-of-life drama that chronicles the beauty and the eventual horror of the final day in the life of Oscar Grant III, who was murdered by police on the titular BART train platform in Oakland, California during the early hours of New Year’s Day 2009. The film was a Forest Whitaker–produced Sundance darling which featured Melonie Diaz and Octavia Spencer as Oscars girlfriend and mother, respectively, and it would mark the first collaboration with Michael B. Jordan, who, over the course of Coogler’s next feature films, would become the De Niro to Coogler‘s Scorsese.
Next, in a career/industry move that almost doesn’t happen anymore: instead of launching a Sundance director into a franchise, Coogler got to step up to a mid-budget film (much like Christopher Nolan did with INSOMNIA in between MEMENTO and BATMAN BEGINS) with the hotly anticipated and emotionally satisfying spinoff of the ROCKY series, CREED, which follows Adonis Creed (Jordan again) taking up the mantle of his father, Apollo Creed, under the training of Rocky Balboa himself (a most generous and warm Sylvester Stallone, bringing new depth to the role that launched his career). The CREED franchise (which Coogler produced and developed) manages to be faithful to the original series that spawned it while also blazing its own trail, as well as providing a great showcase for emerging talent such as Tessa Thompson, Jonathan Majors, directors Steven Caple, Jr. (CREED II) and Jordan himself (CREED III), and reliable veterans like Phylicia Rashad and Wood Harris.
After CREED’s considerable commercial and critical success, Coogler leveled up again, this time to become one of the defining voices of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with 2018’s BLACK PANTHER and 2022’s BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER. In the first film, Coogler gets to exercise his ultimate fanboy muscles, while telling an action-packed parable about the haves (like Chadwick Boseman‘s T’Challa, a.k.a. Black Panther and the country of Wakanda) and the have-nots (Killmonger, a villain tenderly portrayed by Jordan again), and the responsibility that those who have been blessed with much vs. those individuals or those communities begging for table scraps let alone a seat at the table. In its exceptional sequel, Coogler finds a powerful way to adorn a story of profound loss in superhero trappings. Of course, Boseman lost his real-life battle with cancer between the two films, and Coogler’s sensitive examination of a nation in grief— and especially of a mother in grief, as fiercely portrayed by the great Angela Bassett, whose performance is (to date) the only one in a Marvel movie to garner an Academy Award nomination—is a true marvel.
Coogler understands movies. He knows how to deliver the goods, and as a Black man, he knows the impact of creating images and stories about people who look like him. He knows how to shape entertaining narratives around values and issues that resonate with specificity to his community, and spreading that to make global audiences empathize deeply as well.
In fact, Coogler’s contributions to cinema, his community, and to the world have been so immeasurable that it’s really hard to believe that SINNERS is only his fifth feature film as a director. And damn: what a slick, sultry cinematic gumbo this is.
The less you know the better, but for those who need convincing, here are the basic bones of SINNERS: in 1932, the Smokestack twins— one named Smoke, the other named Stack, and both played with style and zeal by, once again, Michael B. Jordan— have returned back home to rural Clarksdale, Mississippi after a brief sojourn to Chicago to seek their fortune. Their return is the talk of the town, with their swagger, tailored suits, and a whole truck full of booze to start up a juke joint in an old sawmill that they purchased that morning from a white supremacist. The first half of the movie has a “let’s put on a show” vibe in which Smoke and Stack round up family and friends old and new to make their juke joint the most happening thing for miles. Those friends and family include sweet Preacher Boy, aka Sammie (newcomer Miles Caton) who plays a mean blues guitar, much to the chagrin of his pastor father; a veteran harmonica and piano man/local derelict named Delta Slim (the great Delroy Lindo); married Chinese grocers Bo and Grace Chow (Yao, and Li Jun Li from BABYLON); a local mystic and Smoke’s lover Annie (Wunmi Mosaku, DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE); and a big plantation worker named Cornbread (Omar Miller, 8 MILE) to stand watch at the door, and let the right ones in (and if you caught this punny hint just now, you just won a million movie points). As the place gets jumping and the party rages on into the wild night with blues, booze, sex, and sweat, who are the right ones exactly?
I’ll say no more about what happens, but SINNERS is Coogler’s first original film (that is, not based on a true story or an existing IP), and it’s his best film by a mile. He spins a delicate yarn—ancient African folk tales, the Bible, southern Gothic mythology, old-timey music, histories of past traumas and oppression, cultural appropriation, and a helluva lot more—and miraculously makes it all seem like one thing. He achieves this with his dynamite cast (which, in addition to the brilliant Jordan, also includes Hailee Steinfeld, Jayme Lawson, and Jack O’Connell) and his regular craftspeople: Ruth E. Carter’s sumptuously textured costumes and Hannah Beachler’s atmospheric, lived-in production design; Michael P. Shawver’s purposeful and electric editing; and all lovingly and lustfully lensed by cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw, capturing the building tension in both Ultra Panavision 70 and in IMAX. Holding it all together is the film’s true MVP, composer Ludwig Göransson. Seriously, is there anything he cannot do?
While the second half morphs into a survive-the-night thriller that certainly puts the “gory“ in “allegory,“ this is the type of dynamic and provocative big-screen entertainment for adults that we need. SINNERS is a rich feast that provides flavorful, dense nutrition—and some naughty empty calories—that will leave you hung over and wondering if you dreamt it… and when the party’s over, leaving you to digest its themes. It’d be a sin to miss it.
Zach is a proud member of the Minnesota Film Critics Association (MNFCA). For more info about Zach, the organization, or to read other great reviews from other great Minnesota-based film critics, click here: https://mnfilmcriticalliance.wordpress.com/