It’s 1932 in the Mississippi Delta, just three years after the crash. Prohibition prevents escapism found in the bottom of a bottle (but the bottles are there, if you know who to tip). The Klan still don their hoods and lynch young men. African Americans work on plantations in exchange for tokens, not dollars. Poverty is everywhere. More than that; there’s a violence in the air. It crackles like electricity; leaving bodies slick with sweat and fear.
That’s the setting for writer / director Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, a supernatural horror with music at its core. Michael B. Jordan plays both Elias and Elijah Moore (primarily known as the Smoke Stack twins), brothers who have come home to the South, having spent time working for Al Capone in Chicago. With a bag of cash, they acquire an old mill and decide to open their own juke joint. They have Irish beer and Italian wine. Their little cousin, Sammie (Miles Caton), is an accomplished blues guitarist and singer who can provide the entertainment. But when Remmick (Jack O’Connell) asks to be let into their club along with two friends, all hell breaks loose … quite literally.
From the offset, music – specifically the kind of music to be found in juke joints – is described as the work of the devil. It is seen as a way to open the door to spirits, good and bad. Although Sinners is not a musical, you cannot talk about it without acknowledging Ludwig Göransson’s throbbing, pulsating score. In this film, music bridges the gap between life and death; possessing an almost visceral ability to get under your skin and having you toe-tapping along in your cinema seat. There’s a mix of Southern spiritual, raspy blues and gentle Irish laments. The scenes where both Sammie and Pearline (Jayme Lawson) whip the juke crowd into a stomping frenzy are both powerful and captivating to watch.
Michael B. Jordan never allows his performance as both Smoke and Stack to be gimmicky. There’s an air of violence about the twins; a danger that seems to permeate through their perfectly tailored suits and glistening gold teeth. Their back story has seen a violent father, World War One and Chicago gangsters shape who they are. It’s a solid performance with layers of pathos and nuance. There’s a magnetism whenever he’s on screen. Similarly, Miles Caton is an actor you cannot take your eyes off. His speaking voice is like velvet and his blues performances are full of soul and wit. Caton shows us a young man desperate to be perceived in the same light as his older cousins; talented enough to break out of town but too naive for the bigger cities.
Wunmi Mosaku and Hailee Steinfeld are equally excellent as Annie and Mary, respectively, two women who have had love affairs with the Moore brothers. Mosaku’s Annie, in particular, plays an important part in explaining the lore of the film – of haints, vampires and ancestral music. It is her knowledge that imbues the team behind the juke with the hope of survival.
Jack O’Connell’s Remmick is uncanny and unsettling. His eyes glow with red embers, as if literally reflecting the gates of hell. Something about his movement also feels off; as if he were doing his best impression of a human. This is notable when he and two of his ‘converts’ sing “Pick Poor Robin Clean” in a bid to enter the juke. They look like mechanical dolls, lifted from the set of a Disney ride. The vampires in this film are both fast on their feet and very, very hungry. Remmick, too, is able to control and agitate them through music. And, although this film has more than a whiff of historical allegory about it, conventional vampire tropes are used. In particular, the need to be invited to cross a threshold is a key plot point.
But how Coogler positions the vampires in Sinners is most interesting. Remmick believes his ‘community’ offers a better life for the African Americans living in town. No more lynchings; no more going to war for a country that treats you as less than; no more false accusations; no more life on the run. Besides eternal life, he can offer power – he’s all about equality and love. His is a society drawn by music and shared memories; not Klan attacks and innocents being murdered. It’s an unusual positioning and it makes for a far more compelling supernatural offering.
Sinners is a thrilling, pulsating, violent and sensual film that will blow your mind with its incredible score. There’s horror elements, personal trauma, historical allegory and top notch performances. It could easily be one of the films of the year.
Sinners is now showing in UK cinemas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oqCwr_bzHI
Editor at Moviescramble. European cinema, grisly thrillers and show stopping musicals are my bag. Classic Hollywood Cinema is comfort food. Spare time is heavily dependent on a lot of pizza and power ballads.
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