Summer Blockbuster Season Has Started Early
Go See Sinners! No real spoilers in here
Sinners is for the people. Well, for people who like a rollicking good time. And people who are not children. But other than those caveats, it’s for the people. So, if you are the people, I recommend that you get your butt in a movie theater as soon as possible and enjoy one of the best early summer hits we’ve had in years. Like skip work and go to an 11 am showing today. It’s that good.
I’ve long been a fan of summer movies. Getting to sit in some cold air for a few hours, maybe enjoy a popcorn and a soda[1] and enjoy a flick. Growing up, we went to a lot of matinees - they’re much cheaper than an evening showing - and I liked walking out of the theater with the sun still high in the air. It made me feel like I had just entered another world for a bit and then returned to my own to find it the same. While my parents would never have taken me - for very good reason - to see Sinners as a kid, it recaptured that experience for me in a way that few movies have.
At its core, Sinners is a movie about trying to escape the confines of history. It’s also about music, love, family, racism, power, [very mild spoiler alert] vampires, and how cool Michael B. Jordan is. But really, it’s about a community trying to break free of the weight of everything that has happened before them. That could make for a drag of a movie, but director Ryan Coogler makes it a fun, funny, dramatic, cool as hell, action-filled romp. He also manages to pop in some incredible music as well. Pretty sick.
I won’t go too deep into the plot weeds here, but Sinners follows two twins, Smoke and Stack, as they return to their home in the Delta and try to set up a juke joint. The character’s real names are Elijah and Elias Moore, but that’s hardly the point when you’ve got such cool nicknames. Michael B. Jordan plays double-duty here, turning in a fantastic performance that deftly manages to be cool, smoldering, and badass. He also manages to deliver subtle differences in performances that help distinguish the twins without creating two over-the-top ungrounded personas. Jordan is one of our countyr’s greatest actors and it really shows throughout this film.
In their attempts to bring this juke joint to life they recruit their younger cousin, played with aplomb by newcomer Miles Canton, old lovers, including Hailee Steinfeld’s Mary, and other local acquaintances looking to help out and or get some emotional closure. Delroy Lindo, Li Jun Li, and Wunmi Musako are particular standouts of the cast. They gift their characters with a deep past, lived-in physicality, and personal connection to the others around them.
To continue the plot, as the juke joint is rocking, trouble comes knocking in the form of three travelers professing to be musicians looking to play. From there, things careen out of control. I won’t say anything else as to avoid spoilers, but things go very wrong. Coogler keeps the action crisp and legible while allowing for important character moments to still breathe when necessary. The tension stays high for the last hour of the film, a trick that is hard to do.
I’m sure that Sinners will do well in the streaming markets and maybe even turn into a cable staple for years to come. But, as with most movies, I recommend going to see this one in the theaters. Even if, like at that theater I was at, whatever copy they were showing had some weird pixelation thing that flashed on the bottom of the screen like every ten-ish minutes. The music especially, is deserving of cinema-quality speakers. Ludwig Gorannson, the current elite Hollywood composer and executive producer of Sinners, put together an incredible blues-heavy soundtrack, full of genre standards and new songs. For at least the first hour, Sinners is far closer to a musical than it is to anything else which gives the whole thing an increased emotional heft. You’re not really going to feel the movie the same way when you’re listening to it out of the shitty speakers on your Samsung TV from Costco.
I won’t bore you with too much else, other than to once again implore that you go see it, possibly tonight! Trust me, you’ll have a blast.
[1] Or pop! I don’t care what you call it.
Enjoyed reading? Please like, share, and subscribe