- Starring
- Michael B Jordan, Miles Caton
- Director
- Ryan Coogler
- Rating
- R
- Genre
- Action, Drama, Horror, Thriller
- Release date
- April 18, 2025
Overall Score
Rating Overview
Rating Summary
In “Sinners” (2025), twin brothers Smoke and Stack, ex-soldiers turned bootleggers, return to their 1930s Mississippi hometown to open a juke joint with their blues-playing cousin Sammie. Their dreams of a fresh start unravel when they awaken a nest of bloodthirsty vampires, forcing the brothers into a brutal fight for survival against an ancient evil lurking in the shadows of the Jim Crow South.
Sinners Review
How does one critique a film that never begins? Billed as a horror film, without hyperbole, Sinners spends 80.29% (1h 50m) of its time introducing characters/establishing the period and location, 7.3% (10m) setting up the plot, and 12.41% (17m) enacting the plot. Yet, despite devoting so much of the runtime to the characters, the film, almost impressively, never develops a single one of them beyond the most skeletal outline. Subsequently, the audience is never given a reason to bond with them and, therefore, care about what befalls them– eventually… almost two hours later.
The cinematography and aesthetic are excellent, as is the attention to detail by the costume and set designers. Unlike many modern productions, such as Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which feature cars driving down dirt roads yet arriving at their destination polished and shining, Sinners does an impressive job of transporting the audience to another time and place. It’s a shame that it’s such a boring place.
Another feather in its threadbare cap, Michael B Jordan, who plays twin brothers, gives a surprise performance as someone other than Michael B Jordan. While the twins’ schtick, much like the rest of the film, is all but narratively irrelevant and more of a gimmick than anything substantial, Jordan masterfully crafts each brother, giving each one a distinct personality without devolving into an “opposite” trope. After the first few minutes, you stop thinking of them as Jordan and, reinforced with some truly exceptional camera work and subtle effects, begin to believe that they are two different people.
The music, too, is mostly killer, with a steady thrum of delta blues backing it. Unfortunately, in one of the film’s more experimental moments, a protagonist (I say “a” because Sinners never clearly defines its main protagonist) whose musical ability is sufficient enough to open the veil between the living and the dead (because it is) summons the ghosts of Black (and two Chinese) Music Past and Future who jarringly dance and play electric guitars while dressed like Macho Man Randy Savage, or perform katas. I get what Coogler was trying to do, but it’s a massive, noisy, laugh-out-loud fail.
Finally, Michael B Jordan’s performances, although strong, also suffer from a severe case of mushmouth. When recreating a Deep South accent, a balance must be found between accuracy and intelligibility, and Jordan frequently mumbles incoherently throughout.
Unfortunately, Ryan Coogler’s desire for originality and scope exceeded his grasp, leaving Sinners without salvation.
WOKE ELEMENTS
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Jim Crow, Gee
- Did you know that Jim Crow laws were in effect in the 30s? No, well, don’t worry, Sinners will remind you… at random times that have no connection to the story.
- Did you know that the KKK was a thing in 1930s Mississippi? No, well, don’t worry, Sinners will remind you… at random times that have no connection to the story.
- Let me be clear, there’s nothing inherently woke about portraying these aspects of America’s past; what makes it woke in this film is the complete randomness and hackneyed insertion. They serve no narrative purpose.
White Devils… Literally
- The only “good” white person in the film is good because her grandfather was half-black. The rest are KKK members and vampires. The film also seems to go out of its way to include multiple minorities in a positive light, so that its handful of white evildoers are that much more stark a contrast. Out of the blue, it even inserts American Indian vampire hunters (in 1930s Mississippi) for all of two minutes of screen time.
- Not all of the vampires are white.SpoilerOnce the main trio of vamps (who are white) finally makes its way to the almost exclusively black juke joint (the film’s primary location), it only takes minutes for them to transform all but the core cast into vampires as well. However, the black vampires are all thrawls.
- The KKK members are one of the most irrelevant and tacked-on bits of film since Transformers: Age of Extinction took the time to explain Texas’s Romeo and Juliet law as an excuse for a needless romantic relationship between a young adult and a minor. They literally have nothing to do with the movie until theySpoilerrandomly show up at the end for a gratuitous gunfight.
Puttin’ On The Ritz
- The slur “cracker” is thrown around pretty liberally, but never in reference to anyone in the movie. It’s another example of referencing something for the sake of doing so, because it’s period-accurate rather than narratively germane.
- Peckerwood also makes several appearences– probably more than cracker. Again, not a single usage has anything to do with the plot, a subplot, or an individual portrayed in the film.
- The 25% black girl says, “I never wanted to be white.” I guess, because being white is bad?
- The piano player says, “White people like the blues. They just don’t like who plays them.” Ok, maybe that was true at the time, but it has NOTHING to do with the film.
Fred Astaire, Who?
- One of the characters embarks on a lengthy and uninteresting narrative for three reasons, only one of which is directly related to the story. The other two reasons are to make fun of white people’s ability to dance and…
Eraserhead
- …to tell a meaningless story about a lynching. Again, serving no narrative purpose.
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- Not all of the vampires are white.However, the black vampires are all thrawls.SpoilerOnce the main trio of vamps (who are white) finally makes its way to the almost exclusively black juke joint (the film’s primary location), it only takes minutes for them to transform all but the core cast into vampires as well.
- The KKK members are one of the most irrelevant and tacked-on bits of film since Transformers: Age of Extinction took the time to explain Texas’s Romeo and Juliet law as an excuse for a needless romantic relationship between a young adult and a minor. They literally have nothing to do with the movie until theySpoilerrandomly show up at the end for a gratuitous gunfight.
- Peckerwood also makes several appearences– probably more than cracker. Again, not a single usage has anything to do with the plot, a subplot, or an individual portrayed in the film.
James Carrick
James Carrick is a passionate film enthusiast with a degree in theater and philosophy. James approaches dramatic criticism from a philosophic foundation grounded in aesthetics and ethics, offering insight and analysis that reveals layers of cinematic narrative with a touch of irreverence and a dash of snark.
7 comments
InterestingUsername
April 18, 2025 at 3:46 pm
The review I was curious about lol.
Yeah, this got praised everywhere, but this seemed 100% like what you’re saying it is. The trailers gave me that vibe that the vampires were supposed to happen at the end and I guess they didn’t want to market the movie as a drama so decided to “give away the twist” or something.
All the race stuff was expected based on the setting.
Will see if more people share this sentiment or despite all of this it still has something going for it, before deciding if I wanna check it down the tline
[email protected]
April 18, 2025 at 4:47 pm
Haven’t seen it yet, but was skeptical when I heard the plot and the almost 100% rottem tomatoes score, but then I saw the vampires and it all made sense
Imasleep
April 22, 2025 at 6:32 pm
Was listening to the review and heard the reviewer mention the bit about “Native American vampire hunters,” and I thought that sounded like some serious virtue signaling right there. Because Jim Crow, slavery, the KKK, etc just aren’t enough by themselves to demonstrate how evil white people are. Did Coogler squeeze in a bit about the bombing of Nagaski and Hiroshima too?
Ariell
April 26, 2025 at 9:46 am
I finally got around to watching Sinners and while it doesn’t focus too heavily on race (but does bring up the subject of racism a few times in the film), I am not overly impressed by this movie. How is it already being called the best film of 2025? I did enjoy the vampire makeup and effects and the major fight scenes between the humans in the club and the vampires wanting to enter the facility and turn them (in essence building an army of vampires), that – and that scene alone – IS the best part of the whole film. The main character’s obsession with his guitar is akin to someone using a Ouija board and then developing an addiction to using it to contact the dead. In this film, music (of a certain kind or rather certain frequency) can heal people but also attract demons who want to feed off of high-vibrational healed people. I disagree with a review that stated the movie is pulling people away from Christianity and wanting people to move into hoodoo, voodoo and spiritism and magic as a means to liberate one’s soul. There is nothing inherently wrong with music that uplifts people and brings them closer to nature, Divine Source or even makes them a better, more healed version of themselves (in fact, Jesus was against organized religion and wanted people to focus on the power that resided within themselves rather than seek validation or confirmation of God via external means). The problem with this movie is that it felt like the vampires were just “slapped” into the film and seem to come out of nowhere. Is this movie about two black brothers who steal from others (they feel deserved to be stolen from) to forge a living for themselves in racially strained times? Or is it about vampires (which have always existed) moving into “juke joint” territory and taking over the population (be it they are White, Asian or Black)? What is the message in this film? And why are SOME Hispanics complaining they were not represented in this movie? The movie was average at best. I can understand the brothers wanting to make money for themselves in what is an economically harsh time but is the message here that the main character’s talent for playing powerful music the reason the vampires were attracted to the club in the first place?
Secondly, I felt like the VAST majority of this movie was one long MUSIC VIDEO. I actually did enjoy the music especially when the club-goers had all left the club and were turned into vampires with our antagonist singing an Irish jig and everyone dancing in a circle around him. But there was a lot of music. The problem with movies, such as this one is, it is trying to be a lot of things all at once. The scene, for instance, with the main character playing his addictive guitar riffs and having people from the past and FUTURE materialize in the joint – because that’s how powerful his music is – didn’t add anything to the overall plot. What difference does it make if the music can “summon” peoples from the past or future especially if the people in the present CAN’T SEE THEM!!? All that matters is that there are vampires, here and now, wanting to take over the club.
A+ for the action/fighting sequences featuring an all-out war between humans and vampires. A+ for the vampire makeup and effects. A+ for the music and A+ for the cinematography, costumes, lighting and overall design. With the amount of music in the film, this story would make a great Broadway musical.
But overall, the movie feels like it just threw in vampires to make the film MORE interesting. The first half is focusing on the brothers setting up their business and getting a talented guitarist to attract club-goers to their club, whilst throwing in the MANDATORY racist white character (which adds zero value to the story overall). And this is growing tiresome of throwing in a racist white character in EVERY movie. This reminds me of the racist white gentleman in Crazy Rich Asians who refused a Chinese woman’s entry into a fancy hotel only for her to tell the white man that her husband is, in fact, the owner of the establishment and he just “works there”. After that, we never see this white man again. He LITERALLY was just added to the movie to have the cliche racist white man.
And my honest review: IF NOT FOR THE VAMPIRES, THIS MOVIE WOULD BE A BUST! It would be uninteresting, boring and monotonous. Music was fabulous especially the Irish song Rocky Road to Dublin – it made me want to dance an Irish jig! But the movie still felt like a music video promoting music of the time period. The movie was actually less about two brothers struggling to make ends meet than it was about kicking vampire heads!
Overall review: C+
healthguyfsu
April 27, 2025 at 9:54 pm
Coogler is just an overrated director. Nothing more…..wake me up when he makes something that isn’t meant to bait Black culture into paying him more money.
liberalcuck
May 6, 2025 at 12:11 pm
i thought it was pretty cool and based actually
James Carrick
May 6, 2025 at 1:07 pm
While science has indisputably proven that the world would be a better place if everyone agreed with me all of the time, it would also be boring.