Every saint has a past and Coogler’s ‘Sinners’ has a future

Cinema | April 21st, 2025

By Greg Carlson

Ryan Coogler goes big and bold with “Sinners,” a sweaty, bloody vampire movie set in 1932. The filmmaker stuffs this universe with enough ideas to serve a limited-series season of episodic television, but the feature format ultimately suits something that brings together Coogler’s large canvas experiences at the helm of massive Marvel hits and the more intimate contours of debut “Fruitvale Station.” Close collaborator Michael B. Jordan has appeared in all five of Coogler’s movies, and here plays entrepreneurial, color-coded twins Elijah “Smoke” Moore and Elias “Stack” Moore, World War I vets who return to the Mississippi Delta following some Capone-related post-military service time in Chicago.

Coogler delights in showcasing Autumn Durald Arkapaw’s beautifully-shot imagery (photographed on IMAX 65mm cameras and 65mm large-format film), taking time to introduce Jordan’s Moore siblings and other key figures in the cast. Chief among them is newcomer Miles Caton’s Sammie “Preacher Boy” Moore, a cousin whose natural gift for blues guitar places him at odds with his religious father (Saul Williams). Hailee Steinfeld’s Mary, whose late mother links her to the Moores, has a tempestuous relationship with Stack. Wunmi Mosaku’s Annie rekindles her connection to Smoke, with whom she shares the heartbreak of a child who died. Smoke and Stack purchase a building and property that they plan to turn into a rollicking juke joint.

The action of the first half of “Sinners” primarily tracks a series of errands and preparations undertaken by the Moore family ahead of their grand opening. Coogler seamlessly blends these tasks with character-building exposition, introducing general store owners Grace and Bo Chow (Li Jun Li and Yao), Sammie’s love interest Pearline (Jayme Lawson) and alcoholic musician Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo). The director briefly makes a hard shift to a separate storyline in which Jack O’Connell’s desperate Remmick tries to stay one step ahead of a posse of Choctaw vampire hunters. In one of Coogler’s few missteps, the Indigenous pursuers vanish from the movie as abruptly as they enter.

Even before “Sinners” builds to a battle royale that will be followed by another showdown (and then a coda and then one last performance), Coogler makes sure viewers get their money’s worth in the climax department. “Sinners” has already drawn some attention for its sensuality and sexuality. The filmmaker explores desire in multiple guises and multiple moments, with both verbal and visual investment in cunnilingus frequently foregrounded as a motif. No less potent is one of the most exhilarating scenes of the year, in which past, present and future griots writhe, stomp and shred in a stunning, show-stopping set piece attesting to the awesome power of Black music.

For those who gravitate toward any and all depictions of the onscreen vampire, Coogler’s placement of the culturally durable bloodsuckers within a larger framework that considers race, community and belonging calls to mind a variety of precedents, from classics like “Blacula” and “Ganja & Hess” to more recent titles such as “Black as Night.” There are also echoes of “Near Dark,” “The Lost Boys,” “From Dusk Till Dawn” and “True Blood.” But “Sinners” really comes into its own with enough juice/mojo/electricity to seriously contemplate the greater evil: vampires or Ku Klux Klansmen. Needless to say, if this movie ever gets added to the collection of the U.S. Naval Academy library, the Trump administration would certainly ban it.

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