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MOVIE REVIEW
“ SINNERS”
RYAN COOGLER’ S MOVIE
By THE MGJR STAFF
Ryan Coogler’ s“ Sinners” opens with the aching chord of a guitar and then an unseen woman’ s voice saying:“ There are legends of people born with the gift of making music so true. It can pierce the veil between life and death, conjuring spirits from the past and the future.”
And“ Sinners” does just that.
This film, set in the 1930s, is an upending combination of comedy, horror, vampires, comingof-age, and historical period movies. Set in rural Mississippi, it tells the story of a single day and night filled with music, sin, horror and Black folks’ unremitting search for freedom of every kind.
The film’ s main protagonist, Sammie“ Preacher Boy” Moore, is first introduced to the audience bloodied and limping to Sunday service gripping the headstock of a broken guitar, as the choir sings“ This Little Light of Mine.”
The singing stops as the congregation gasps at the sight of Sammie. The scene cuts to the devilish figure of a white man with a blood-smattered face and then goes quickly back to the church. There we hear the preacher, Sammie’ s father, exclaim to his son:“ I want you to swear to me and before this congregation to leave sinning ways where they lie... Drop the guitar, Sammie.”
Before Sammie responds to his father, the movie flashes back to the morning of the previous day and we see the vast expanse of the plantation’ s cotton field where Sammie’ s family are sharecroppers, and the arrival of Sammie’ s cousins, Elijah“ Smoke” Moore and Elias“ Stack” Moore, identical twins who are played by
Michael B. Jordan. They are known to everyone simply as“ Smoke” and“ Stack.”
The twins have returned to Mississippi after seven years in Chicago working for – and ripping off – the city’ s most notorious mobster for a truck full of Prohibition era liquor and beer. The twins buy an old sawmill and set about to open that night a juke joint where the food is soulful, the liquor flows like the Mississippi River, and the music – oh, the music – is foot stomping good.
This movie pulsates with music – from the backwoods blues that flows from Sammie’ s guitar, and the throaty songs of a street performer called“ Delta Slim,” to the syncopating Irish music and jig-dancing performed by a strange trio of Whites who try to crash the twin’ s juke joint. The film climaxes with a clash between those who are allowed into the twin’ s hooky-tonk and those who are not.
“ Sinners” immerses its viewers in the competing themes of love, spiritualism, racial identity, racism and the characters’ unrelenting drive to be somebody. Intertwined throughout all of this is the film’ s music, which is a scene-stealing co-star to Michael B. Jordan’ s outstanding performance.
“ Sinners” is a must-see movie for God-fearing, and unfaithful people alike. •
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