Sinners

 

We see into the lives of twin brother Mississippi gangsters and their attempts to open a club… Only have vampires attack opening night.

OK, let me warn everybody about something before seeing this movie… The commercials are lying. They’re making the movie look like this is going to be the next Jordan Peele movie, like From Dusk Till Dawn meets Green Room with prohibition gangsters… And really it’s not; it’s more like a character drama with vampiric elements.

The best thing about the movies is the acting. Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, JacK O’Connell, Delroy Lindo, Omar Benson Miller, Li Jun Li, and Lola Kirke all gave great performances in pretty well-developed, likable characters.

Absolutely loved the cinematography; great use of darkness and light. Almost every shot of this movie is stunning.

A lot of great music, both played in the film and from the soundtrack. My dad was a very big blues fan, so I always appreciate seeing good blues music in films; it reminds me of him. I liked how they worked blues and the history of blues into the movie.

Ryan Coogler has some masterful camera work, both in setting up shots and in how we move the camera, not to mention his ability to get great performances out of actors, so shout out to him for all that.

For good and for ill, the film kind of reminds me of Paul Schrader’s Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist, it’s very well-made and has some interesting concepts and characters, but the “horror” doesn’t really work because it’s not scary, or at least filmed and presented in a way to make things as scary as you would hope or make you feel tense. Unfortunately, a lot of the vampire stuff just plays into a lot of clichés with some pretty flimsy explanation and dialogue when it comes to certain parts… Not to mention at least one or two pretty dumb character moments, or let’s say “interesting creative choices.” There is only one scene that I think really was creative and unique, but honestly, it was more of a throwback to a John Carpenter movie than anything else. Personally, I kind of wish this wasn’t a horror movie and more of a regular thriller, because I think it would’ve played better if the threat outside wasn’t supernatural.

I don’t know where else to put this, and it’s kind of a weird thing, but… I think what feet are to Tarantino, cunnilingus is to Ryan Coogler 🤷‍♂️️. Do with that information what you will.

Also, this movie did not need to be two hours and 17 minutes; like, it just goes on and on and on when really if it was a tighter film, it would’ve packed more punch… Not to mention they put a really good scene as a midway credit scene, and it’s like a full almost 5-minute scene. Why they start the credits before showing that scene I have no idea, but don’t leave when the credits start playing because there is a nice little scene at the end, so wait until you see the title before leaving.

So I won’t say Sinners… Sucked 🧛‍♂️🩸😂 I was a little let down by this one, mostly because I was hoping for a really cool horror movie, and while what I got was good, it just felt a little bit elongated in certain points, and unfortunately, the horror elements didn’t live up to the quality of the rest of the film. Honestly, Sinners, as both positive and negative, it feels like Ryan Coogler got a $100 million blank check to make a movie any way he wanted and put a bunch of different ideas and concepts and styles into one film, which I appreciate and applaud the passion and creativity… Unfortunately, maybe he was just too close to the project and had too many ideas because this script could use some editing and refining to bring everything together in a more satisfying way, so it just lacks a certain pop…

I give it a low three stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️. The film definitely has its moments and positives, but the lack of horror and almost too many elements felt too messy for my taste, but I could see this movie connecting with other people, so to each their own.