Sinners (2025)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Sinners (2025) – R. Coogler

Watching this on the tiny airplane screen with disposable headphones probably did this film a disservice, especially because so much of the plot is driven by the music: classic blues played by Miles Caton’s Sammie Moore (or in old age by Buddy Guy) and by (Oscar nominee) Delroy Lindo’s Delta Slim. There’s also some Irish folk music played by white people (led by Jack O’Connell) who may have appropriation on their minds when they approach the African-American roadhouse/dancehall opened by twins Smoke and Stack Moore (played by Michael B. Jordan). OK, more than just musical appropriation, because it’s at this point in the film, more or less, when the narrative shifts from a coming-home story about the twins who left their jobs working for Al Capone in Chicago to come back to Mississippi in the 1930s into an action-horror film.  I guess the plot had already been mostly telegraphed for me by the media (at least the presence of a particular horror staple) so I wasn’t surprised at this tonal shift. The characters who were best established before the horror started mostly survived the transition.  Hailee Steinfeld, as the mixed race (but white-appearing) former lover of either Smoke or Stack, has a tough role, playing the outsider who is nearly accepted back into the fold until she’s really very clearly an outsider again later on. Obviously, Jordan is tasked with playing the two twins, one more gregarious/dominant than the other, and then a virtual third role after the transition. Wunmi Mosaku (also Oscar-nominated) plays one of the twins’ ex-wife (or partner), a woman with knowledge of herbs and maybe witchcraft. Of course, one of the central goals of the film is to outline the terrible effects of racism in America (but also to portray the strength of the community that is targeted and their care for one another). Nothing here is didactic because, after all, 16 Oscar nominations aside, Ryan Coogler’s film is really designed for a wide mainstream audience (with big budget feel).  I did dig the coda though!