From writer/director Ryan Coogler
(“Black Panther”, “Creed”), “Sinners” is an exploration
of race and family issues, wrapped up in a vampire movie.
Michael B. Jordan, a frequent Coogler
collaborator, plays twin brothers Smoke and Stack, a couple of 1930s
gangsters recently moved back to the small Mississippi town where
they grew up. Flush with money and booze from ripping off their
Chicago Mob bosses, the brothers buy an old sawmill and convert it
into a juke joint. They recruit musicians, including their cousin
Sammie (Miles Catton), and run into some old flames, and things seem
to be going well until opening night gets crashed by a clan of
vampires.
“Sinners” probably doesn't hold up
to a close plot analysis, but enjoyed on the surface, it's a hoot! A
talented, good-looking cast and a great soundtrack of blues and folk
music make the 2h 17m run-time pass more easily than it should. I got
the impression somewhere that the movie is a musical, but it isn't;
it just has a ton of music and dancing in it.
The most interesting character in the
film is Stack's ex-girlfriend, Mary (Hailee Steinfeld). She is one
quarter Black, which, by the Jim Crow laws of the time, made her
legally Black, and therefore a second-class citizen. She is so light,
though, that she passes as White, and she really has no choice but to
do so. If a White-looking woman like her were seen with a Black man
at that time, it would arouse racist anger. So she is married to a
white man and lives in constant danger of being outed as Black.
Meanwhile, Smoke and Stack have
learned that getting away from Mississippi did not mean getting away
from racism. Chicago doesn't have the Klan, but the city has plenty
of ways to remind the brothers what color they are. As Stack tells
his guitar-playing cousin when asked why they would move back to the
South, “Better the devil you know.”
“Sinners” explores these racial
issues, but it does not belabor them. Ryan Coogler knows how to keep
the story going with action, sex, and, of course, some fantastic
music. If the film leans a bit superficial, erring on the side of
entertaining rather than preaching, well, that's no sin. At the end
of the day, “Sinners” is a good mix of food for thought with
candy for the eyes and ears.
4 stars out of 5