PalCinema Review: Sinners
It's one of the biggest hits of the year and understandably so.
May 15, 2025
FILM: SINNERS
DIRECTED BY: RYAN COOGLER
STARRING: MICHAEL B. JORDAN, MILES CATON, ANDRENE WARD-HAMMOND
RATING: 3 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
Sinners has been one of the biggest success stories of the year so far. It’s a period film with a focus on everything from racism to music and…oh yeah, vampires. The first two of these might automatically suggest it is a serious Hollywood adult-themed film. The third is what likely brought in a massive audience here in the U.S. That’s not a bad thing for it pulls together a lot of what viewers need today: a film which says something while also giving quite a bang for one’s movie buck(s).
This also isn’t a film that “slums” it by becoming a genre film. Yes, it does feature the conventions of vampire lore: stakes, garlic, and “they only come out at night.” However, the monsters are used as a metaphor for evil and what can happen if people cave to the “dark” side. In this case, the evil is music or the “Devil’s poison.” Looking at the setting it makes sense. It’s 1932 in rural Mississippi. The film opens in an all-Black church when a clearly wounded man walks in. Cut to one day earlier when all seemed good in the world.
Michael B. Jordan, in an interesting but effective “stunt,” plays twins Smoke and Stack. They’ve just arrived from Chicago where they were exposed to the Blues and immediately open a “juke joint.” The problem is that the church views the music as evil while the town harbors white Ku Klux Klan members. Smoke and Stack aren’t deterred and the evening goes on as planned. All goes well until…well, vampires begin their move to the joint.
What’s interesting is first how this builds. The first part of the film is somewhat languid in terms of pacing. Characters are introduced and the beautiful location is established. Two great films might serve as precursors to the build up here. The first is Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds. Everyone knows there will be a series of bird attacks but their initial appearances are slight. It takes a good chunk of film time before the massive onslaught by the birds takes over the narrative.
The same happens in Sinners. We know they’re coming but we only get hints for a period of time. The other film that springs to mind is Jaws. Yes, there’s a horrible attack of a girl at a night time beach in the very first scene but we don’t see the shark for quite some time. We don’t even get a real sense of the enormity of the creature until much later leading to a harrowing climax.
In Sinners, the partiers in the joint are having a great time. A statement is made by one of the characters that music can “conjure spirits from the past and future.” Almost on cue we begin seeing a man playing an electric guitar, another scratching a record on a turntable, and a variety of dancing styles hit the dance floor. Zipping past decades of music history, clearly director Ryan Coogler is emphasizing the power of music to bring people to psychological states and time periods that everyday life just doesn’t provide. Music can be transformative. Of course, this is exactly what the church fears. It sees this power as something initiated by Satan.
Soon people who were once friends become vampires and the partiers find themselves locked inside the joint that Smoke and Stack created. Characters are similarly “caged” in The Birds and boarded up in a small home in George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. Do all of these films suggest we bring evil upon ourselves? Does it lock us in for a fight? Some might believe so and I think the fact that Sinners takes place when and where it does says something about the strong belief system within this community at the time.
It’s also not a coincidence that the vampires are stand-ins for the Ku Klux Klan which was so prevalent before and during the 1930s. Did Coogler make this film as a history lesson? No. I think he wants us aware that such evil does still exists today and must be rallied against. This includes modern incarnations of the Klan as well as those who want to censor our music and books.
Speaking of music, major kudos have to be given to composer Ludwig Goransson for a very effective and powerful music score. Adding to this are some of the songs co-written by Miles Caton who plays the preacher’s musician son Sammie. They capture the sounds of the south as well as modern variations. The production numbers associated with these songs are also well-staged. I have no doubt Sinners will be adapted for a Broadway production in the very near future.
In the end, the film is about standing up for what we believe in and fighting the evil that attempts to keep us from our pleasures and art. Coogler and company don’t want us to give up on our passions.
Sinners is playing wide theatrical release.
Have you seen Sinners? Do you agree that it’s one of the great films of the year?
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Haven’t seen it yet but am planning to
Great review. We loved it. And by the way, night of the living dead is the scariest movie of all time.