Review of Sinners, directed by Ryan Coogler

Welcome! If you’re new here and stumbled upon this blog post through the mythical and magical powers of the Internet, this is my digital archive of everything I’ve come across throughout the years. I used to work professionally as a film critic, but left my position to start this blog, as I’m more passionate about focusing on BIPOC/POC stories and international cinema.

I then had a job opportunity that was supposed to be huge fall through at the end of 2024, which left me unexpectedly unemployed. I crunched my finances hard to see what the situation was, and realized I was in a privileged enough situation where I could take some time off.

So I did and took my time job hunting. During this time I was really focusing on the blog, watching a ton of movies, reading books, and focusing on developing new skills that I could keep adding to the resume. It also helps that I make a few pennies here and there from the display ads on my site.

Ever since I lost my car (a college student totaled it last year, and because I’ve been working remotely, I haven’t purchased a new car yet), I haven’t really been going to the movies physically in-person. I used to have AMC A List and go to the movie once or twice a week, but now I tend to just use my streaming platforms and Kanopy through my library.

I didn’t plan on seeing Sinners originally, although I was curious about what it was like from the buzz I was hearing about on the vast expanse of the Internet. Then one day my friend called me and asked if I was free that evening. I happened to be, so we geared up to go to Bengies in Middle River, Maryland.

This is a drive-in movie theater where you either sit in your car, or bring lawn chairs to sit right next to it. At the time of typing this it’s like $12 a person to go in a car, which is dirt cheap for going to a double feature like this. I’m used to AMC charging like $20 and up per person just for one movie.

We did a double feature of the Minecraft movie, then Sinners was starting at 11 PM. So we got comfortable in the trunk of my friend’s car, at intermission grabbed some cheap burgers and sodas from the concession, then kept ourselves awake during the screening of Sinners.

Let’s get into the review! I don’t want to ramble too much, as I know there’s a lot to discuss with this movie.

When two brothers return to Mississippi and plan to open a club, it invites the supernatural and devil into their lives.

This movie begins with two brothers, Smoke and Stack, coming home to Mississippi after spending some time in Chicago. There, they worked for Al Capone, having returned from World War I, and with the money they took from the mafia, they decide they’re going to start a juke joint for their community back home.

So begins the recruiting game. First they pick up Sammie, their cousin, as he’s someone who aspires to have a music career in the blues despite the wishes of his pastor father. His father also tells him he’s going to meet the devil tonight, which is major foreshadowing for what’s to come. The movie begins after the horrific events of the evening, which is a bit of a red herring in many ways.

Smoke and Stack continue making their rounds, picking up the drunk pianist Delta Slim and a female singer named Pearline. Despite her being married, Sammy wants to make his move on her. Smoke meets up with Annie, who’s going to cook at the joint, and that serves to tell us about their kid who died.

We also meet Mary, who yells at Stack for missing her mother’s funeral. She’s a woman able to pass, and despite them breaking up, there’s quite a bit of hate, which is a stand in for love in a lot of different ways. The brothers also pick up their supplies from the Delta Chinese community members Bo and Grace, which is a fascinating form of representation in this movie.

As night falls and the juke joint prepares to open, we switch to a burning man running towards a house. The two people living there let him in, but as the sun begins to set, some Native American hunters warn the women before fleeing themselves. She goes back into the house to find her husband dead and turned into a vampire, and she’s next.

At the juke joint, everything is very successful. People are having a ball and the drinks are flowing, with Bo and Grace doing all the bar work. However, when Sammie has a riveting performance, he manages to break a spiritual barrier and summons spirits from past and present, creating such a magical scene to watch on the big screen.

When the three vampires from earlier show up and ask to be let in, posing as a group of musicians, the brothers decide to not let them in. We learn later in the movie it was Sammie’s incredible performance that lured them here, and despite what’s to come, he still chooses music. Mary convinces Stack to go to talk to the vampires, and when she tried to leave them outside, she’s turned.

Cornbread, serving as the bouncer, lets her in, and she has sex with Stack, then bites him viciously. As his brother shoots at her, the other patrons start to flee into the night, sealing their fates with the vampires. Mary flees outside (although we never learn why she isn’t allowed back in after being invited), and Cornbread, who goes to pee, is turned into a vampire in the woods.

Only Grace, Pearline, Annie, Delta, Smoke, and Sammie are still inside and safe from the vampires. After Stack reanimates, Annie stops him by dumping pickled garlic juice on him and flees outside. She realizes they’re vampires, then tells the others how to stop them and to refuse to let them inside. Cornbread tries to convince them to let him inside, but they refuse after Smoke is almost attacked handing him money.

Everyone who fled the juke joint is now a vampire dancing outside to the Irish jig with Remmick, the original vampire (and an Irishman). Turns out Remmick knows something they don’t: the KKK is going to attack the bar when the sun rises. He’s also very much trying to convince the survivors to join him as vampires (which comes across very much like a cult in this scene), and Grace almost loses it when she sees her husband Bo as one and they threaten her daughter.

It’s Grace, as the vampires start loudly singing outside, who tells them to come in, and the group gets ready to fight with what they’ve got. Grace is burned alive taking down a vampire, Delta sacrifices himself so the others can get away, and Annie is straight up bit in the neck and Smoke has to kill her before she transitions so she can go to the other side.

Mary seems to remember who she was as she watched Annie die, and she runs away from the scene. Smoke and Stack fight, and Smoke gains the upper hand. Pearline is killed on the way out and bitten, while Smoke gets Sammie out of there. However, Remmick tries to stop him and reveals his past: he was from an Ireland that was colonized by the British centuries ago, leading to some more interesting commentaries on the oppressed becoming an oppressor.

Smoke does kill Remmick before he takes out Sammie, and when the sun rises, the vampires he turned all burn. Smoke tells Sammie to get out of there, leading to the scene in the beginning where he runs into his father’s church and his father says he should turn to the lord, while Smoke kills all the KKK members before dying himself.

The movie ends with Sammie driving with his guitar through the cotton fields, alone, a mirror to when he was in a car full of people before. However, during the mid-credits scene, he’s a successful blues musician 60 years later and Stack and Mary roll up to offer him immortality. Turns out Smoke spared his brother as long as he promised to leave Sammie alone, and Stack now has a request: give one last performance for them.

Sammie does so, then Sammie says that the day of the tragedy was the best day of his life before night fell, and Stack agrees, saying it was when he felt free, was able to feel the sun for the last time, and it was the final time he saw his brother. Mary and he then leave, and the movie ends.

Overall Thoughts

This was such a wild movie, and even if you’re not a fan of horror, the worst of the blood is people being killed by vampires. The incorporation of the blues and 1930s culture in Mississippi was absolutely fascinating and beautiful to me. I turned to my friend when I saw the Chinese and literally said it was the first time I ever saw this representation of Delta Chinese communities in a movie.

Regardless, as someone who studied oppression and colonialism in graduate school, I found myself really reflecting on that notion of oppressed versus oppressor. Remmick, who was an oppressed individual, became an oppressor in some ways and was a part of the status quo and tragedy of that night. While Stack does become free of the KKK, he literally lost his humanity and everything he lived for, minus Mary.

This was such a good movie, and the standout scene especially was when Sammie was performing. It was gorgeous to watch on the screen, and I think I’ll be returning to this movie in the near future just to see that happen in real time again. All of the actors were also fantastic, and I think Jordan should get some noms for this.

So if you’re reading this and haven’t seen it, go see it! Reading the plot simply isn’t enough for some movies, so watch it happen on the screen in front of you. Trust me, it’s magical.

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