So, if you’re chronically online like your old man here, you might’ve noticed the entire internet has been abuzz for Ryan Coogler’s latest film, Sinners. The plot is simple enough, I mean you can get the core gist of it from the trailers alone. Le vampires le kill le people, duh. And as with any movie that makes this much of a buzz, you will inevitably be spoiled on at least one aspect of the film.
Though, even with spoilers, Sinners is still a great film. It is incredibly rare for a film that isn’t a sequel or part of a larger movie franchise gets this much buzz and critical acclaim, all at the same time. The last I can remember was Oppenheimer. Some are calling it the movie of the year. Do I agree?
Don’t know. You see, dear reader, my stomach acted up and I had to miss like ten minutes of the movie. That may not seem like a lot, but this was in the beginning when all the groundwork was being laid, so I reckon it best I go back and rewatch the film to truly analyze it. Though, that should ring true for everyone. You might’ve missed something the first time around, watch it again.
In addition, I should say I am not a black dude or from the South. I mention this because, well, it centers around black dudes in the South, so it’s likely I wasn’t aware of certain cultural references or themes. I am also not accustomed to accents in the Deep South, so there were times I’d wondered if I should’ve found a screening with subtitles, increasing the likelihood of me missing something.
Regardless, Sinners is really good. Now, I ain’t much of a horror guy. Weird, considering I’m willing to watch films about the depravity of the human condition but refuse to watch movies with too many jump scares. Though, Sinners felt much more like a historical thriller piece that just so happened to have horror elements. It’s bit of a slow burn, gradually building up to the core conflict of the film and then erupting in ferocious glory, as the story itself takes place over the course of 24hrs.
I also have to mention that this movie is strangely quite funny. There is already a litany of memes and videos about the film, much to my amusement. Seriously, I have enjoyed the internet shitposting almost as much as I did the movie itself. I think it also skewed my perception of the film walking in. I think a part of me assumed it would’ve been kinda of a comedy for some reason.
Speaking of funny, Jack O’Connell makes a great villain in the vampire known as Remmick. It’s rather uncanny how he can go from a funny down-on-his-luck feller to a demonic nightmare ghoul at the drop of a hat, and he provides the film with the necessary dread and suspense you’d expect out of a story like this. At times he feels more like a force of nature than a person, which fits considering he is an undead supernatural evil from folklore.
People have also pointed this out already, but Remmick is Irish, which is a genius choice. Like I’ve said, this is a historical piece; the film is set in 1930s Jim-Crow Mississippi, at a time when the Klan was still kicking it and race politics were a gigillion times worse than it is today. It could’ve been easy to just say “white man bad,” yet by being Irish, Remmick embodies a group of people who share many similarities with the plight of black Americans, as the Irish weren’t considered white for much of the 19th to early 20th-century. It is heavily implied in the film that he has suffered centuries of oppression from the hwite folks.
But still, he is a villain, and if you know anything about the Irish, they assimilated here in America. I wonder what him being a vampire and forcing his victims to also become vampires and become like-minded as he is could possibly mean, hmmmmmm…..
While we can spend all day talking about the film’s themes and metaphors, Remmick’s conflict with the folks at the juke joint should be an obvious one; don’t just let anyone in and be wary of who you invite out to the… cookout, barbeque, carne asada, etc, you get my point. The film warns us to be vigilant about outsiders, for they may corrupt or even destroy our spaces and cultures. This is demonstrated by the fact that these bloodthirsty vampires follow the old folklore, ie, they can’t come in without an invitation.
We also need to talk about the soundtrack. Music is core to the movie, and you could possibly even classify this as a musical considering how much music helps drive the plot and themes forward. Hell, the main setting of the film is a juke joint with the main character being an aspiring blues guitarist. I wish we had more films like this; the idea that music can be used to commune with or attract the supernatural is a fascinating concept to be explored.
And boy, is the music loud. If you don’t find yourself bobbing your head or wanting to dance in at least one of the scenes, you’re missing something in the film. There is one scene in particular that most critics and internet fellows have raved about. While it wasn’t my favorite scene or the one that stuck with me the most, it really is an incredible display of filmmaking.
Of course, who can forget about the acting? I’ve already mentioned Jack O’Connell, but Michael B. Jordan steals the show as the Smokestack twins. The fact he can perfectly play two people with distinct personalities, body language, and manner of speech will likely make you forget that these two characters are actually played by one man. If you’re watching Sinners, you’re probably watching because you either think Michael B. Jordan is a very handsome fellow or that he’s a really good actor. I’m not gay, but I don’t know which camp I fall into more.
Hailee Steinfeld is fine. I uh… don’t have much else to say. Josh Allen has new motivation to win the Super Bowl though. Heheh. Shameik Moore be writing his suicide note by now.
Miles Canton is great as Sammie, the aforementioned guitarist and main character. Crazy enough, this is his first major film, so the sky’s the limit for his career. But really, the whole cast kills it man. The characters they play form the soul and ground the film despite its supernatural elements, and alongside Coogler’s directing, helps keep the film as thrilling as it is tragic and bittersweet. As such, the movie is as endearing as it is spooky.
When the horror elements start to seep in, they’re done well, and while scary, I found the vampires to be much more unsettling than outright terrifying, which works a lot better in my opinion. I guess I can only describe it as like, I don’t know, a disease? The vampires, now that I think about it, remind me of things like the Flood from Halo, a near unstoppable force that consumes almost everything in its path.
Side note, I do love the setting of the film. As I’ve said, a historical piece. Race plays a role in the film because of its setting in the Jim Crow South, of which that setting also plays its part in the film’s themes of freedom and assimilation. While I don’t know if this is intentional or not, Coogler’s decision to put the film in 1930s Mississippi also sharply demonstrates the absurdity of Jim Crow and the narrative the white supremacist weirdos try to enforce.
For those of you don’t know, the South has always been a bit of a diverse place, especially in the Deep South where a hodgepodge of different cultures and peoples interacted and mingled with each other. Y’all didn’t know the Chinese had a deep history in the South, did you? Schools don’t teach that shit. However, in the time after the Civil War and Reconstruction, the white folks tried to act like that intermingling never existed and that race was definitive, which it was not.
Hailee Steinfeld’s character is white-passing. “Nah she white!” By the standards of the time, she would be white-passing. It’s called the one-drop rule, bucko. It’s dumb as bricks, but if I were to get into the weird pseudo-science that these honkys used to justify and enforce Jim Crow, I’d have to teach a semester at Northwestern. This unfortunate reality of how race politics were at the time presents conflict in Hailee Steinfeld’s romance with one of the Smokestack twins.
Because do you know who else was white-passing? Homer Plessy. Yes, the feller in Plessy v. Ferguson, where the Supreme Court basically legalized segregation. That one-drop rule was a load of bullshit, but hey, white folks. In other words, racism is really stupid, but that is the reality that the Smokestack twins have to deal with. They strive to be free of that reality and this helps drive their motivations in the story, whereas Remmick tries to present himself as an escape, even when it’s clear he is just a different set of shackles.
To reiterate, it’s brilliant that instead of making the main villains a bunch of Klan members, Coogler instead opts to make Remmick an Irishman, a group of fellers who weren’t considered white for the longest time by American society. It is implied that he is also a victim of oppression and others forcing their own culture upon him. However, the Irish were able to adopt whiteness and therefore assimilate into white culture. Other European ethnic groups were able to do the same as race politics shifted, for the white man wanted to make a clear distinction between European ancestry and… well, the Asians and black folks.
It really is a metaphor about the oppressed either siding with or becoming the oppressors themselves. It’s a metaphor for how this desire to assimilate causes us to lose our roots, heritage, and even culture. I’m Asian, so I know this quite well. Let me tell you, you’ll never find a bunch of folks who’d drop on their knees faster for the white man than these jobbers. Sinners really is just one big warning on the dangers of losing your culture to outsiders, and Coogler does that so well in a film about vampires.
Now, some of you might just be like, “aw, it’s a vampire movie it ain’t that deep.” You’re part of the reason our country is on the decline intellectually because you’re unwilling to engage with any work of art. Get off TikTok, idiot, and rectify your toddler-ass attention span. You don’t have to be a film student to recognize the themes the movie literally throws in your face.
While I am wary of any sequels or what have you, I do agree there is much to be explored within the world that Sinners builds. They only showed up for like two minutes and I was like, “Choctaw vampire hunters… can we get a wendigo in there too?” What a prequel to Remmick’s backstory?
I don’t know if we’ve ever gotten a decent werewolf movie of this quality. Probably never. We shouldn’t give the furries a reason to exist.
Anyway, Sinners. Do watch it when you get the chance. From what I remember, it’s being re-released on IMAX in a couple weeks.