The Plot: Mississippi, 1932. Having fought in the Chicago gangland wars, twin brothers Smoke (Michael B. Jordan) and Stack (also Jordan) return to their hometown. Along with their cousin Sammie (Miles Caton) they spy a business opportunity to open a night-time song and dance barn for the local community of cotton farmers, while evading the attention of potential KKK members. All’s fine that night until trouble turns up in former flame Mary (Hailee Steinfeld) and the confrontational Remmick (Jack O’Connell) who taunts them from outside. All is not what it seems and it’s going to be a long night fighting to survive more than just human conflict…
The Verdict: It’s been said that there are no original ideas left in Hollywood. Studios churn out sequels, remakes, re-imaginings etc whether audiences want them or not. They can get a fair bit of stick for that and rightly so sometimes. However, they occasionally hit on a great concept, get out of the way and enable the filmmaker to go and do what he/she wants to achieve that all-important directorial vision. The result is a finely-crafted, thrilling blockbuster that represents the best of Hollywood when it works like a well-oiled machine – the Mission: Impossible films are an ideal example of that. This brings us to Ryan Coogler’s latest offering Sinners – a pulpy genre film which very comfortably sits in the same upper shelf while keeping itself wholly individual and the kind of film that only Coogler could confidently make.
Sinners is not only an original film, but a film that comes across as a summation of Coogler’s career up to this point – from his startling debut Fruitvale Station to Black Panther: Wakanda, he’s a filmmaker who is not afraid to push at filmmaking boundaries and see what he can get away with. Sometimes it doesn’t entirely work – the latter film was a bit unfocused and long in the tooth. There are little evident filmmaking sins at play in Sinners though. Coogler’s script is a thing of beauty from the start. It’s lean and muscular but grounded in an everyday reality that makes it a 1930s period piece with real bite. The relationship between the twin brothers Smoke and Stack (nice touch) is one of mutual respect, their world-weary cynicism and experience balanced out by the wide-eyed innocence of their younger cousin Sammie who plays a more important role than initially appears.
The period detail is captured well by Coogler and his production team, but without wallowing in the kind of ‘racism rears its ugly head’ approach that is often a trap for films set in the segregated ‘Jim Crow’ era in poorer states like Mississippi. It’s a more open-minded film that also expects its audience to be open-minded about where it goes next. For this is a film that operates on different levels as it shifts gears from a nervy drama about returning twin brothers to a heady slice of southern gothic horror and a violent gangster film. Three films for the price of one then, but it’s a combination that works brilliantly due to the sophisticated way in which Coogler shifts gears while keeping his characters in check. From Dusk Till Dawn, which was ridiculously banned in Ireland at one point, was a reference point for him and it sort-of plays out as a reverse version of that but shot through with Coogler’s own unique style and sense of place and time.
Beautifully lensed by Autumn Durald Arkapaw and ominously scored by Oppenheimer composer Ludwig Goransson, this is a film that has a sensual, sassy, sweaty and bloody atmosphere of outright panic mixed with sheer terror. It also taps into that treacly, southern gothic vibe of the supernatural quite strongly, while also having some fun with it in a surprise nod to Irish culture that is respectful and amusing at the same time. There’s also an undercurrent of humour running through it too which lightens the occasional flashes of violence, with Delroy Lindo delivering the best line in a film full of great one liners. While it takes a bit of time to set things up, Coogler pays out in spades, building up on the promise of the premise to deliver one thrilling sequence after another and not dropping the ball. He’s clearly in love with this world and doesn’t quite want to leave it, building in a worthy bonus scene after the first set of end credits and another one at the very end. Sinners is original thinking and smart filmmaking from Coogler that hits the bullseye time and again. Highly recommended.
Rating: 4.5 / 5
Review by Gareth O’Connor
Directed by Ryan Coogler.
Starring Michael B. Jordan, Miles Caton, Jack O'Connell, Hailee Steinfeld, Delroy Lindo.