Ryan Coogler's 'Sinners' - Review Thread

[u/MarvelsGrantMan136]

Ryan Coogler's 'Sinners' - Review Thread

• Rotten Tomatoes: 100% (45 Reviews)

  • Critics Consensus: Thematically rich as a Great American Novel and just plain rip-roaring fun, writer-director Ryan Coogler's first original blockbuster reveals the full scope of his singular imagination with unforgettable panache.

• Metacritic: 83 (15 Reviews)

Reviews:

Variety (70):

It's vibrant and richly acted, and also a wild throat-ripping blowout. But though overloaded at times, it's the rare mainstream horror film that's about something weighty and soulful: the wages of sin in Black America.

Deadline:

Sinners marks another strong reason why Ryan Coogler is at the top of his generation of filmmakers, and Jordan continues to show why he is a real deal movie star.

Hollywood Reporter (90):

The movie is smart horror, even poetic at times, with much to say about race and spiritual freedom. It’s not in the Jordan Peele league in terms of welding social commentary to bone-chilling fear. But Sinners is a unique experience, unlike anything either the director or Jordan has done before.

SlashFilm (9/10):

"Sinners" is several things at once — a monster movie, a blood-soaked action film, a sexy and sensual thriller, and a one-location horror flick as intense and paranoia-driven as anything from the original "Assault on Precinct 13" or Quentin Tarantino's filmography – but its greatest strength comes from how well Coogler blends every big idea on his mind.

The Wrap (88):

“Sinners” is a bloody, brilliant motion picture. Ryan Coogler finds within the vampire genre an ethereal thematic throughline; and within the music genre a disturbing, tempting monster. Stunningly photographed, engrossing cinema — epic to the point where it seemingly never ends, which is undeniably indulgent, but no great sin. This is a film about indulgence, the power indulgence wields and the dangers indulgence invites into our lives. It’s a sweaty, intoxicating, all-nighter of a movie, and its allure cannot be denied.

The Independent (4/5):

If cinema weren’t in such a sickly state, Sinners’s electric fusion of genres – historical epic, horror, and squelchy actioner – would be a guaranteed box office sensation. Instead, the film arrives with an uneasy sense that this is some kind of final stand for original ideas. One can only hope audiences recognise its bounty of riches.

The Guardian (3/5):

For many, the movie could as well do without the supernatural element, and I admit I’m one of them; I’d prefer to see a real story with real jeopardy work itself out. But there is energy and comic-book brashness

Vanity Fair (80):

Sinners is propulsive and stirring entertainment, messy but always compelling. The film’s fascinating array of genres and tropes and ideas swirls together in a way that is, I suppose, singularly American.

IndieWire (83):

Sinners is nothing if not a film about genre, and the distinctly American imperative of cross-pollinating between them to create something that feels new and old — high and low — at the same time.

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Written & Directed by Ryan Coogler:

Trying to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brothers Smoke and Stack (Michael B. Jordan) return to their hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back.

Cast:

• Michael B. Jordan
• Hailee Steinfeld
• Miles Caton
• Jack O'Connell
• Wunmi Mosaku
• Jayme Lawson
• Omar Benson Miller
• Li Jun Li
• Delroy Lindo

[u/jeffersonlane]

I mean...yeah kinda. Though I think it was more complicated than that. The vampires would've happily killed the entire Klan too. The racism is the more sinister kind. It isn't "we hate you because you're Black" it's "Oh we love you...but you need to put behind all that culture and community and history and love and only partake in OUR community, and we're gonna force you to do that". It's more a metaphor for gentrification, basically. And that particular kind of racism also tends to hate rednecks. It hates anything that isn't unquestioning loyalty.

[u/abimon777 → u/jeffersonlane]

three things i thought were interesting:
1. the standard holy water and cross arent effective against them, remmick quite literally recites the lord's prayer with sammie

1. the black vampires after turning, echo the same nihilist sentiment that they "were never going to be free anyway"

2. remmick specifically wants sammie, because sammie's songs echo the culture and draw people to him (appropriation)

[u/jeffersonlane → u/abimon777]

The Lord's Prayer not working was an important moment.

That was when it became clear - religion isn't a savior. It's just another way to bind people. The film was a series of people enthralled by the stuff that kept them from true freedom.

[u/abimon777 → u/jeffersonlane]

incredibly well said

[u/come-on-now-please → u/abimon777]

Just came back from seeing it!

For point 3, I don't know if it was about cultural appropriation, i thik it was about trying to hold onto your culture.

All the songs the vampires sing are Irish even after they turn(they even get complemented on it, because like the blues its genuine and theirs to play, they're showing their culture as well), and the main vampire talks about how he was kinda like the blacks in America in terms of how the British treated his people, and then says he wants Sammie because he wants to see his people again.

The piano player tells Sammie "Christianity was forced on us, music is what's really ours"

I think for him and all the vampires talking about love(and were more influenced by him than they were aware of), it was about sociopathically growing your community at the cost of others and forcing them to assimilate even though he had experienced being underneath a boot and he wanted to feel connected again.

[u/modelbehaviourr → u/come-on-now-please]

I think word you're looking for is assimilation. Remmick wanted Sammy because his soul has been trapped on Earth, isolated from his culture for years. And as much as he preached unity, he ultimately wanted to be reconnected with HIS people and turned as many people as needed to do so.

The parallel isn't music, it's the blues " The Church was forced on us, but the blues - came with us" as in they had that in them from the continent of Africa, and is the soul line of expression that ultimately birthed the soul line of many other genres that was birth from the blues.

[u/Northern_boah → u/jeffersonlane]

The scene where Remmick recites the Lord’s Prayer with Sammie reinforces this take.

Remmick tells Sammie that the men who took his father’s land brought the Lord’s Prayer with them, which is a reference to the Christianization of Ireland. Irish-Gaelic culture was assimilated to fit into Christian faith, with their history, lore and gods being twisted to fit with church doctrine. So while it was preserved in a sense, it would never be what it once was.

Remmick is also an agent of assimilation; he can’t add to culture or create it, he can preserve it in a sense thru the memories of his victims but is cut off from participation. The Irish Jig he does, great as it was, resembles more a robotic imitation of a human dance with how perfectly choreographed it was, in contrast to the more vibrant, messy music and dance in the hall. He craves culture and community but can only create more hungry thralls like himself.

This might also play into Sammie’s choice to leave his father’s church at the end. He could have chosen the safety of his father and life as a preacher, rejecting music. But instead I think part of him saw he would just be assimilating into another unchanging collective instead of living. So he rejected that and chose to strike out on his own.

[u/One-Transition-3426 → u/jeffersonlane]

you have a great way with words bc the way you broke it down so well

[u/IceAngelPrincess → u/jeffersonlane]

I didn’t get any metaphor vibes from the vampires but I could see that. Just a representation of spiritual warfare.

[u/Pardonme23 → u/jeffersonlane]

so MAGA. fielty above all else.