Alex Moss EditorWhen he’s not juggling the behemoths of Marvel films and bringing beloved characters like Rocky and Creed back to the big screen, Ryan Coogler has always been a filmmaker with a clear point to make. Even in those aforementioned franchises he was not one to rest on his laurels and simply allow box office takings to determine ideas and themes beyond what these films usually strive for.
On the surface his latest, Sinners, is a vampire film. An almost single location band of survivors fighting off a gang of vampires as they circle, seduce and devour. But while the marketing of the film has focussed on this you might be surprised to see it as one of the best reviewed films of the year. And the simple reason for that is; it is one of the best of the year so far. And the vampires are really only a final act device, the rest of the film is instead a richly textured examination of the exploitation of minorities and the many ways in which they rise, rise and rise again.
In 1932 Mississippi twin brothers Smoke and Stack (both played by Michael B. Jordan) return to their hometown after years of working as mob enforces in Chicago. Purchasing an old sawmill with ill-gotten gains from working under Al Capone, the pair open a Black-owned juke joint with the help of blues prodigy Preacher Boy (newcomer Miles Caton), pianist Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo), singer Pearline (Jayme Lawson), Smoke’s estranged wife Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), local Chinese shopkeepers Grace and Bo (Li Jun Li, Yao), and field worker Cornbread (Omar Benson Miller). But while their aims are true the underworld, both literal and fantasy, are about to come knocking.
Coogler’s use of the 1930’s setting looks stunning and seduces you with humid sexual energy and its effortlessly cool blues music. From bouncing around in cars, through sprawling cotton fields and smog filled train stations, Coogler transports you to the era. There is an authenticity to the setting, all too often we see this period of history as quaint and polite when it was anything but. Coogler’s dialogue is no-holds barred, his characters speaking with a level of profanity that is sometimes shocking, often funny and decadently naughty. All these elements lend themselves to a rich tapestry of characters that represent minorities being kept down by the white man.
In one sequence in particular, Coogler makes the bold decision to blend past, present and future minority cultures into one of the year’s most compelling moments that has no right to work but does so in such a jaw-dropping way it’s impossible not to be swept away by it. And therein lies the power of the film. Its ability to put you in the point of view of the Black experience and make you realise how unjust and exploited this community has been. Not just in their labour but almost every aspect of their cultural identity.
And then, as if it weren’t happening in the wider society of the cotton fields, the vampires enter to drain these richly textured characters of anything they have left. If it sounds heavy handed it never is. Coogler layering nuance through throwaway lines about the central characters serving their country in World War I and yet still cast aside. But rather than letting it define them they use it to their advantage. These aren’t victims, they’re proud people who you don’t just root for but grow increasingly fond of as the film unfolds.
In the dual central role Michael B. Jordan has gone from being a very good leading man to a bonafide star. There is a swagger to his twin brothers Smoke and Stack, a power to them that it’s hard to imagine another actor being able to create the dynamic so well. Special mention should also go to Wunmi Mosaku who brings an incredible ferocious maternal energy to the film and newcomer Miles Caton who carries the film’s emotional investment with ease.
The ending descends into a vampiric bloodbath but the coda offers something deeply satisfying. A sense of justice in the face of injustice. A feeling that selling your soul to ‘the man’ is one thing but there is power in staying true to who you are.
Sinners is a powerful, evocative, textured and hugely rewarding film that uses its genre to conjure something moving and entertaining. Rarely does a film of this ilk sink its fangs so delicately into you before ripping them out to leave you gushing with emotion.
Sinners is in UK Cinemas now.
