Sinners

Michael B. Jordan as Stack and Smoke

I liked Ryan Coogler's new film, Sinners, his best and most personal film since Fruitvale Station. The film is a musical vampire flick set in the Mississippi of 1932. Michael B. Jordan, in his fifth film with Coogler, plays twin brothers, Smoke and Stack, who journey back to their home town after a lucrative sojourn in Chicago. They are set upon opening a juke joint, but soon must contend with the Klan and a passel of vampires. Jordan is a delight, fully relaxed in the heroic mythos of his dual roles. The production design is outstanding, handsomely evoking the period while also looking lived in. I particularly appreciated the supporting performances of Omar Miller and Delroy Lindo.

That said, I did not love the film. I dug the film's use of blues and folk songs (though the performers taking a writing credit on Wild Mountain Thyme seems a stretch), but thought Ludwig Göransson's score was as overbearing as his one for Oppenheimer. The female supporting roles Coogler has drawn for the film are ridiculously one dimensional. Also, I don't know how the vampires fit into the rather jumbled cosmology of Sinners. Jack O'Connell provides a vivid turn as the alpha vampire, but the creatures reason for being remain murky. Sinners is primarily a parable about Afro-American survival in the US with the sinners finding exultation Saturday night on the dance floor and solace at church on Sunday morning. The vampires are much more drawn to the music of the juke joint at night than gospel in the morning light, but there is no devil in a film that is full of the devil's music.

I think Coogler bit off more he could chew in Sinners, but salute him for his originality and daring in an era of corporate retreads. Sinners does contain one bravura moment where the musical performers in the juke joint conjure spirits of disparate musicians from the past and future who join in the jam, all links in the chain of the blues. The Buddy Guy cameo is also a nice touch. All in all, though, I prefer another recent film which merges music with the supernatural, The Devil and the Daylong Brothers. That picture is a B movie through and through, but is slightly more coherent and less bloated than Sinners.