Sinners

This film reminded me of how much I love going to see new and well-made films in the theaters. I definitely am finding myself hopping on the hype train for Sinners, but I believe there were a lot of good things about this one that made it deserve the hype it received. Ryan Coogler's success story is an inspiration to any aspiring filmmaker (not referring to myself: I have no interest in making films), and it was wonderful to see the immediate success he's encountered after releasing his best film yet.

My go-to complaint when I dislike horror films is that the protagonists are forgettable. For most horror, this complaint tends to be pretty valid, as the main selling point of the film is the villain/slasher/demonic force and not their victims. As a result, it is tough to have any emotional reaction (other than disgust if the death is brutal) when major characters are slaughtered. That is not a problem that Sinners encounters. This stems primarily from the choice to spend the first almost half of the film assembling and developing our cast of characters. It is indeed almost exactly at the hour and fifteen minute mark of the two-and-a-half-hour film that the vampires are even introduced. With lesser films, audiences could easily be turned off by this slow start to a supposedly terrifying film. But because Sinners characters are so well-crafted and just plain interesting, it somehow avoids evoking this response.

In writing the above paragraph, however, I've come to realize that Sinners isn't just a typical horror film and indeed is not even just a horror film. Somehow, it manages to bridge genre gaps, resulting in something of a Horror/Period Piece/Musical with racial commentary. And because of the skillful combination of these four seemingly incompatible genres, Sinners is able to create a film that is genuinely unique and unlike any others I've seen before. Between the refreshing take on the vampire myth and musical numbers that are easily the best scenes in the film (you know the one I'm talking about), Sinners enters the ranks not only as a successful genre-hybrid film but as a successful film individually in each of these categories.

Transitioning to nitpicks, there were very minor plot points that didn't add up for me—vampires keeping promises and the KKK involvement—but given the story is about summoning demons with the power of music, I'm willing to suspend my disbelief and cut the film some slack in these areas. While none of the performances particularly blew me away, I was impressed with the film's ability to ensure there was no confusion on who was who of the Michael B. Jordan twins. Smoke and Stack were distinct enough with their personalities, relationships, and wardrobes that this was not a problem.

In case this wasn't communicated, I was particularly impressed by this film. It is always wonderful seeing original stories driven by talented directors receive the mainstream appeal they deserve. And it was personally very wonderful to be able to support these types of films by seeing it in theaters. Go watch it while you can.