Sinners (2025)

Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Michael B. Jordan, Miles Caron, Hailee Steinfeld et. Al.

Directed by: Ryan Coogler

Where It’s Available: HBO MAX in the US and most international territories, Crave in Canada

It’s not often that a film can seemingly come out of nowhere based on a trued and true idea, take that concept, tweak it and set the world on fire, but in Ryan Coogler’s ‘Sinners’, that’s exactly what happened. Ostensibly a period-piece genre film, but in truth something that’s much more than the sum of its parts, Sinners is a film that years from now, when you look up ‘cool’ in the dictionary, a still from this film will be staring back at you.

Michael B. Jordan stars in duel roles as the twin brothers ‘Stack’ and ‘Smoke’ - two wiseguy street toughs in depression-era Mississippi. The brothers have returned home after several years (where, among other things, they worked for Al Capone in an unstated capacity) with designs of opening up their own juke joint - a Chicago-style night spot with liquor, gambling, live music and dancing. They are joined in this endeavour by their young cousin, ‘Preacher Boy’ Sammy (Miles Caton) - an aspiring blues musician (so named because his father is the town’s preacher). Now as you can imagine, attempting to open a black-owned den of iniquity in 1932 Mississippi faces certain pitfalls. Stack and Smoke deal with crooks, thieves, white supremacists and … other problems. Without getting too much into it (and I’ll be frank, the less you know about this film going on, the more you’ll appreciate it) the film has enough twists, turns and tight corners to keep you engaged and all the while, Michael B. Jordan’s duel roles - two brothers, two halves of the whole, two VERY different characters - are electric whenever he’s on-screen. Can a man be nominated for best actor twice? I’m asking sincerely.

The Good: There’s one scene in particular that is breathtaking - the way it’s shot, the energy, the feel. It takes you on a time traveling odyssey through black music - the role it plays as part of the black experience. The camera pans around the dance floor while Preacher Boy plays his guitar and sings and you feel the energy and feel the connection and the light - through chanting tribes in Africa, to the blues music of the depression, up to hip hop and turntables of the Golden Age itself, you literally take a trip through the history of black music. It’s quite possibly the tightest oner you’ll ever see. Coogler weaves music into the fabric of the film and succeeds in managing to make it a character in and of itself.

The Bad: It’s not who you’d think. One of the most interesting things about this film is how it subverts genre tropes. The primary antagonist is set up early, but they’re not exactly the main ‘bad guy’ - it’s hard to explain without getting spoilery so instead I’ll just say this: every character in this story has depth of field and real, understandable motivations. You’ll appreciate it more and more as the film goes on, and there’s a cathartic moment in the denouement that is truly rousing. (There - was that vague enough? I feel it was pretty vague)

The Ugly: A few characters get their throats ripped out, necks gashed, etc… but for me, the most ‘ugly’ part of the film is the drooling. It’s… ugh. Yuck.

Is It Suitable For Kids?: A hard-R horror film? No, definitely not for the young ‘uns - but thematically, this could certainly work for more genre-savvy teens. 

Sinners is one of the smartest and most fully-realized original stories to come out of Hollywood in years (it cribs ideas from properties that came before - ‘From Dusk stil a Dawn’ comes to mind) but takes only what it needs, remixes the rest and throws it into a blender and the resulting mishmash is simply one of the coolest things you’ll see on your screen. Michael B. Jordan is mesmerizing. The music is fantastic. Coogler’s direction is confident and bold fully establishing himself as an A-list helmer (not that he wasn’t already… Black Panther was kind of a big deal). This isn’t just the best movie to come out this year, this is one of the best films of the 21st century. Period. 10/10.