Sinners (2025)

Ryan Coogler has proved he's more than capable of helming all sorts of films. His best might still remain his debut Fruitvale Station (2013), but he impressively injected new life into the Rocky franchise with Creed (2015) before being handed the reigns of Marvel's Black Panther (2018) which, although far from the masterpiece everyone bizarrely called it, was a cultural phenomenon.

So he's earned the right to more or less do what he wants, and Sinners is a bold and interesting choice. Set in 1932 Missouri, events take place more or less over a twenty four hour period, as twin brothers Smoke and Stack (both brilliantly played by Coogler regular Michael B. Jordan) who have returned to Mississippi after years of soldiering and running around with gangsters, to run a juke joint. They gather what they need for the grand opening- which we're told must be tonight (for no real good reason) in a town where they're familiar to the locals, and instantly run into trouble when a couple of ne'er do wellers attempt to steal from the back of their truck. It turns out they know the two thieves from back in the day, but have to at least maim them as punishment, otherwise where would their reputation be?

The world building from Coogler is stunning, even if we only visit a handful of locations. It actually had me thinking of Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) in the attention to detail, especially in the town and within the establishments themselves. What Sinners is really interested in however, is the music and the history. And the soundtrack, right up until the last half hour, is fabulous, infused with beautiful blues music within the score and performances from the cast themselves. Speaking of, the cast includes terrific turns from Hailee Stanfield, Delroy Lindo, Wunmi Mosaku and newcomer Miles Caton as 'Preacher Boy' Sammie- cousin to Smoke and Stack, and central to the plot's religious themes.

The film aches with the shadow of slavery and the inequalities of the South- the Ku Klux Klan are prominent in the background (initially), and plenty of the people who eventually turn up to the opening night party of the juke joint have spent the day working in cotton fields. Allegories are abound- in the detail, and of course front and centre to the film's plot with its use of vampires depicting the vileness of white supremacy amongst other things. It's around the halfway point with the party in full swing that the vampires arrive, led by a wonderful Jack O'Connell.

Unfortunately this is where Sinners starts to lose its way. The supernatural element takes you away from the world building despite the impressive intentions, and it doesn't help that despite Jordan's terrific performance, we're asked to sympathise with the twins- and at the end of the day- they're just not particularly nice people. Sure, you can argue about everything they've been through but it's hard to root or care, or indeed for some of the people around them- despite the excellent performances. The cast do a lot with what they're given, but you frequently feel like setting it all over one twenty four hour period was a mistake- this would have potentially been more suited to a fleshed out television series. It also doesn't help that the brilliant use of music falls away badly in the film's final third when the vampire's attack- I realise why Coogler changes it up, but for me it simply doesn't work.

There are needless flashbacks throughout that we can do without, as well as a rather bizarre sequence where Lindo's character describes a past event and we get the echoing audio from the event rather than a visual aid. Still, it probably fits in line for what Coogler is trying to get across here- this is all about the sound, the music, the history.

Impressively, Coogler has managed to get people falling over themselves to praise his films. Black Panther now frequently features in 'best films of all time' lists which is just an utterly ludicrous thing to suggest (although it is admittedly in lists from such publications like Empire or IGN); Black Panther is fine, but because of the cultural impact and box office revenue it's heralded as a work of genius. And here, once again, Sinners has been singled out as the best film of the year so far by many (Empire once again proving how far they've fallen as a serious film publication). It has split opinion though; a lot more than Black Panther did. And with good reason.

There's a lot to like about Sinners, and Coogler and his cast deserve great credit for this. The world building, use of music up until the final third, and the general intrigue that the first half sets up so well are genuinely impressive.

The final act before the credits role is satisfying but stupid, and the post credit sequence is rather enjoyable in a sense- but it also asks the glaring question, just what on earth was the point of the rest of it? Without giving anything away, it removes any of the fear or seeming jeopardy that inserts itself around the halfway mark.

Perhaps the underlying problem is we simply don't need the vampires or indeed any supernatural element to allegorise a truly horrifying period of history; but again it's hard to criticise Coogler too much here because the idea in itself is an interesting one, and it still does a rather decent job of suggesting the horrors that people had to deal with in a time that is scarily not that long ago, all things considered. Sinners also gets bogged down in figuring out what sort of film it's trying to be; of course there's plenty of films that can switch genres effectively at will, but when Sinners attempts to do it, it just becomes a bit confused.

Ultimately Sinners is a frustrating experience. That's both a criticism and in some ways a compliment. Perhaps in lambasting Coogler for certain choices I'm also contradicting myself- he tries too many things but paradoxically maybe doesn't throw enough at the wall. Which doesn't really make any sense. But perhaps that sums up Sinners in a nutshell. 6.6/10