Can racism, music, love and vampires come together in one movie? It shouldn’t work. But it does. And exceptionally well. Director Ryan Coogler creates a movie that mixes horror, history, music and social commentary into an Oscar worthy movie…but maybe not quite a 16 Oscar nominations worthy movie.
Some of the strongest aspects of “Sinners” are the acting and the visuals.
Miles Caton gives a powerful performance as Sammie Moore, encapsulating his character’s musical talent and struggles under racism. Michael B. Jordan brings intensity to his roles as twin brothers Smoke and Stack (that’s right, he plays two roles – often on screen together), creating differences in their personalities while still having them feel like authentic twin siblings.
The cinematography does a nice job of creating the tensions in 1930s Mississippi through the use of lighting and camera angles. The dim, directional lighting during the night scenes at Smoke and Stack’s juke joint leaves much of the frame in shadow, giving the viewer the feel that something scary might be looming just out of view. The most striking visual is the scene that brings music from past, present and future generations together. The camera moves fluidly throughout the room in this scene to highlight the connectedness between generations and culture.
I was immersed into the world Coogler created. Vampire films are often meant to be scary like “Dracula” while some are funny like the “Hotel Transylvania” series. However, in “Sinners” we see something new: vampires as symbols for racism and the limited opportunities for Black Americans in the United States.
On paper, it might seem like too much. It’s a horror film, a historical drama, a western. It talks about racism, morality, power and identity. It mixes the visual styles of horror lighting, western spacing, tight framing of realism, and more. It should be too many themes, too many topics, too many visuals, but Coogler makes it work.
But the sheer amount of things at play comes as a blessing and a curse.
While I would call “Sinners” a great movie, I wouldn’t call it “sixteen Oscar nominations great”. Yes, the movie is entertaining, but nothing grabbed my attention as much as the vampires and at times there seems to be too much going on that I couldn’t see the message behind the chaos. Highlighting and representing the continuing struggles of Black Americans is important and necessary, but I don’t think framing this message in a vampire thriller was the best option. When you attach the real issue of racism to the fictional issue of a vampire attack, you risk your audience missing your point entirely or seeing racism as something that only happened in the past.
It’s impressive, to say the least, that Coogler could tie everything together to create an entertaining and thought-provoking movie, but, though it’s easy to pick up on his message throughout the movie, it’s equally as easy to get distracted because of all the supernatural hecticness going on.
