Film Review: Sinners
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Outside of the occasional Marvel super event film, it is exceedingly rare that I have the chance to see a movie twice in theaters, let alone one that I paid for. Sinners, the box office behemoth directed by Ryan Coogler, afforded me this opportunity as I was able to trek down to the Irvine Spectrum and snag an IMAX ticket. I had initially held off writing the review and am grateful to have waited as this release afforded me the chance to see it in the method I believe Ryan most intended it to be seen.
While I am a big fan of widescreen, there’s not much that can match the cinematic joy of seeing an IMAX screen fully used. Especially when it comes to one of the most iconic sequences ever to be on film, the I Lied to You musical number. Just like how I felt when I saw the opera Omar which had similar cultural synergy in a dance number among slaves, getting to see that as big as possible is one of the most thrilling things I’ve gotten to experience in a theater. I believe Ryan is at his best when he gets to show off how much of a craftsman he is as well as a storyteller. The structure of the film, something I had more of a problem with the first time, settled in a bit, I believe mostly aided by getting to experience the full weight of the visuals.
And when the movie hits, it really hits. Michael B. Jordan’s already impressive performance grows even larger (no pun intended) on the IMAX screen. I was able to notice even more of the choices he made as an actor to imbue both brothers with a unique soul and it is a crowning achievement for an actor like Jordan who has been working for so long. I have enjoyed him in other films, but now I feel like his movies will become appointment viewing for me just to see what skills he can show next time.
Perhaps most fascinatingly, the supporting performances settle in more in the second viewing. It’s not to say they were bad before, but Delroy Lindo, so brilliant in this part, melded into the fabric of the time period more for me, making his end all the more tragic. I was excited to get a chance to re-examine the character of Grace, as she has generated so much discourse. I find this character fascinating in that all of her decisions make sense but she’s also in one of the moments when I most felt Ryan’s hands on the story when she calls all the vampires into the juke joint.
Ryan’s script is quite fascinating to parse through with multiple viewings. In many ways, Sinners is a movie that is defined by its many excesses as it is by its nuances. It’s a sprawling character drama, an American Gialo, a potboiler, and a history lesson. It’s got many great things going for it and yet, I still found myself stymied in my desire to give it my total admiration. Try though I might, I still find the opening and ending/first post credit scenes impenetrable, despite fully understanding the emotional weight they’re meant to carry. Knowing Sammy has survived the night does rob the film of some dread and effectiveness, even as we can still be sad about everyone else dying. The first post credits scene especially feels like laying things on too thick, particularly as it pertains to now Old Sammy being offered the bite to heal him. There’s no point in that type of choice being offered to an old man, there’s no dramatic incentive for him to say yes, and his revelation that before the vamps showed up it was the best night of his life has no real sense of closure. We already saw it was. This speaks to an over sentimentality or explanation that the movie simply doesn’t need and structural choices that were made that kept me at a distance.
I’d say there’s no character that better personifies both the extreme highs and not so low lows than Remick. Remick, as an existential psychological threat, is just as menacing this go round and Ryan Coogler gives Jack O’Connell some of the movie’s funniest dialogue, allowing him to chew up the scenery when he can. However, with the exception of his very lewd and pointed words to Grace and his taking flight behind Mary before she’s turned, he never quite rises to the level that truly strikes fear into our hearts. One of the struggles I had the first time I saw this film was that it felt like the sense of dread never truly hangs over the movie and this time was much the same. I think about a movie like Alien, which is similarly structured, however in that film, the monster is already inside the ship. Sure Mary is let in and Stack gets turned inside, but it’s not until Grace utters her fatal words that the vampires make a physical move on the people inside. Funny enough, as I was watching this movie I thought a lot about Elijah Mikelson from The Vampire Diaries. The series spends much of the first two seasons focused on the threat of Klaus, but it’s Elijah who gets the most diabolical moment when he uses loose change to shatter vampire proof windows and let our heroes know they will never be safe. In Sinners, Remick toys with the mind, which we can say is an allegory for white supremacy and cultural appropriation but in the language the film gives us, it’s not until they’re outside that we feel Remick in all his might.
Ultimately, I have settled into an extreme appreciation of the film, even if as a whole I find it hard to get into all the nooks and crannies. I think this movie is going to settle in my mind like Arrival. I think Arrival is a spectacular film, but it never rises above the original grade I gave it because I just cannot reconcile the opening five minutes with the rest of the film. Both movies speak to me in so many ways and I think force me to constantly reconcile with myself how I am engaging with them and what new things I can glean. That’s the mark of a good movie and one that I will happily keep rewatching, to see if there’s a new avenue or message that can meet me where I am. Safe inside. With garlic if necessary.
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