IR Film Review: SINNERS [Warner Bros.]
When a filmmaker like Ryan Coogler makes a film like "Black Panther" it opens the door to make projects that are both diametric but also have a certain expectation to them. "Sinners," his latest, is an interesting swing but one that keys into a specific perspective but also gives it that genre structure while hitting some hard issues and time frame. The cornerstone of the movie is a pair of 30s gangster twins (both played by Michael B. Jordan] called Smoke and Stack. The way the film works one knows there is a sense of stakes. However the genre element is likely how it was greenlit which is too bad. Because simply as gangster pic about a return to home in a time of unbelievable racism in the South is such a dynamic idea...and Coogler shot it in 70mm. But as most people know, the movie does devolve into vampires and while it is an interesting idea...it is a distraction. The crux of the movie relies in the music and the sub lead in Miles Caton, a young blues guitarist who is a pastor's son but has a gift.
His presence is the crux for the entire film but almost pushes too close to "Crossroads," a 1987 movie which had some of the same ideas. The influx of vampires obviously gives it a "From Dusk To Dawn" tinge which again doesn't serve it as well as the swagger of Jordan as the Dead Ringers. That is the true special effect. At one point before the melee there is a place where the music transforms the image and the movie takes off from itself. In that moment it melds alot of black music in a single shot and it is pretty gloriously done. That shot alone is worth watching the movie for. The context of the vampires and how they play is fairly new but there is alot missing from its explanation or want. If it was simply Smoke and Stack taking it to the man, that would have been even cooler but that is too on the nose and in many ways hard to do with a major studio picture so it is guised in somethiing else which of course is the trick but it almost belittles its former brilliance.
After what would be the melee, it actually comes on track with another scene before the final coda before the first credits start. It is again a great moment for Jordan and because of the vampire context it is palpable I guess for most people. It is powerful for sure but it would have been without the genre bent and likely more epic. The movie actually also has too many continued endings, even a nice little music addition at the end, which is great but almost too indulgent. The mid credits gives a sense of closure in what the story is and also a cameo per se that caters to its lore aka Robert Johnson but from a different legend. Also two other actors not to be missed are Delroy Lindo showing that range that we haven't seen from him in a while but agan the vampire thing. Hailee Steinfeld is brilliant too up until the shift. It is not that the movie is bad, it just takes a different shift where one could have kept some of the supernatural such as the bag around Jordan's neck but bring it up to mythic which is still does in the last scene but it makes the vampires (led by an interesting Jack O'Connell) more the focus) which it really shouldn't be. "
“Sinners" has some absolutely brilliant and iconic elements to it but it will stilll be great to see Coogler do something period that is simply straight because some parts of this give you chills, like that music transformation scene. And It hits the strings in a much different way than say the beginning of "Babylon," another movie with missed potential. "Sinners" is something to see, simply for the core of what it is, likely before studio economics (or the understanding that the budget somehow has to match the commerce) kicked in. That said, it is great that Coogler and company tried something so ambitious while still understanding the reality. But that underlying motivation and switch is Coogler's to explain. B+
By Tim Wassberg
