Sinners (2025) review

Dir. Ryan Coogler

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★★½

Sinners storms onto the scene at a time when most movies in theaters at the moment are quiet and understated, with a couple exceptions. It arrives in time for another busy summer of blockbusters that will show you movie-after-movie where a director’s vision likely had to be compromised because boardroom executives and alleged research suggested an alternate route would be safer; more mass-appealing. On a base-level, Sinners shows you the kinds of movies we hardly see: ones where a director gets a massive budget to bring an original story to life.

Flirting with a nine-figure budget and an elite cast that functions both individually and as an ensemble, Ryan Coogler’s Sinners is a Southern Gothic gangster vampire movie, in a class of its own despite an overcrowded genre. Coogler has established himself as a filmmaker of great confidence and bravery. He didn’t crumble under the pressure and expectations of Creed, his spinoff to an Oscar-winning series also synonymous with boxing. Maybe more impressively, he broke free from the boilerplate of Marvel to deliver back-to-back Black Panther movies, which were predicated on Afro-futurism in a series where culture wasn’t one of the Infinity Stones. Moreover, real ones remember Coogler’s debut, Fruitvale Station, as a masterful, urgent biopic about the tragic shooting death of Oscar Grant.

Set in Clarksdale, Mississippi in 1932, Sinners turns his attention to the Jim Crow South and the lore of vampires. It’s a quiet farm town where “Preacher Boy” Sammie Moore (Miles Caton) dreams of being a blues singer, much to the chagrin of his father, who warns him that one day the devil will follow him home from one of them juke joints.

Speaking of juke joints, Sammie’s identical twin cousins, Smoke and Stack (Michael B. Jordan pulling double duty) are back in town after fighting in World War I and rising up the criminal ladder in Chicago. They’ve arrived home with a fat stack of cash, plenty of liquor, and a vision to open the greatest blues bar this side of the Mississippi. Smoke and Stack bring their plan to life in one busy day, recruiting blues singer Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo), a mythic friend named Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), a well-meaning former slave known as Cornbread (Omar Miller), and a Chinese couple (Yao and Li Jun Li) who operate a corner-store.

At nightfall, the joint opens. Drinks flow, the blues plays loudly, people dance, and the gathering is lively. An old childhood friend of the boys named Mary (Hailee Steinfeld) pops up with her own intentions, but none as sinister as the evil forces brought on by a traveling folk trio, led by an eerie Jack O’Connell, who try to encourage Smoke and Stack to let them in to perform.

Coogler takes his time spinning this creative and visually dazzling yarn. The first hour of Sinners is a true historical period drama, slowly introducing us to various slick-talking locals in a way that recalls the beautiful works of playwright August Wilson. Unseen in most of his works, at least until now, is Coogler’s proclivity at writing natural conversations between various players. He lets the character development sing and the suspense build like a great blues number. When the vampires finally do appear, it’s a true jolt because of how he’s roped us into this old-fashioned epic.

Spectacle might get butts in seats, and make a film that’s entertaining on a surface level, but Coogler has a lot more on his mind than just vampire carnage. He doesn’t make the vampires an easy bunch to dislike. Aside from the neck-biting, bloodsucking, and mental manipulation, they are actually a convincing bunch of hippie idealists who believe in love and fostering teamwork alongside their immortality. It’s appealing at first, but it’s a hive mind, cultist way to live life, and it’s one these ambitious Black artists don’t want to accept.

On that note, Sinners becomes a film about resistance to a homogenized culture, as well as survival. If you’re someone who fears politics in your entertainment like a vampire fears garlic, rest assured that there’s more than enough to appreciate on a base level. Coogler doesn’t skimp on stakings, neck-biting, and flame-throwing. Alongside his immensely talented, frequent collaborating composter Ludwig Göransson, the two fashion Sinners as a lovely ode to Chicago blues. Multiple extended sequences permit the stylings of these talented individuals to breathe. The vampire cult does a lovely Irish song-and-jig to “Rocky Road to Dublin” that I immediately wanted to rewind once it concluded. It’s hauntingly invigorating. There’s also the repeated use of the ditty “Pick Poor Robin Clean,” employed to disquieting effect.

Let it be known that Göransson’s original compositions shine too. They really take shape during the final 45 minutes when the vampire carnage really ramps up. Göransson’s strings provide a palpable excitement and intensity to the action.

Of course, Michael B. Jordan is up to the task of playing two distinctly different characters in Sinners because he’s just that good. Smoke and Stack have dueling personalities despite both being savvy businessmen. You can practically see a small grin on Jordan’s face as his smart-ass self (Stack) toys with his straight-laced self (Smoke). Delroy Lindo is predictably exquisite as a drunkard bluesman, who gets his motor started anew after one sip of the brothers’ Irish beers from Chicago. Miles Caton makes his film debut and very quietly becomes the important emotional core of the picture, while Hailee Steinfeld makes good use of her comparatively limited screentime, but also gets to revel in playing both sides of a character whose motivations aren’t always explicitly clear. Her Mary is probably the only one who could’ve used more development.

We, including myself, have lamented Hollywood’s love for remakes and reboots while clamoring for more original movies. This weekend at the multiplex provides you with several opportunities to make a statement with your wallet. If Sinners sounds too heavy and bloody for you, consider The Luckiest Man in America, about the 1984 Press Your Luck game show scandal. If you still want something in the thriller column, Drop provides your fix in a tight 90 minutes. Warfare is as intense a moviegoing experience as you’re going to find this year, and although unseen by me at this time, Sneaks is the rare animated film not tethered to an existing property. It’s long past time to put up or shut up when it comes to supporting what you claim to want from movie studios.

If nothing else, I for one would rather watch another Coogler original than a remake of Friday for his next feature.

Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Miles Caton, Hailee Steinfeld, Delroy Lindo, Jack O’Connell, Wunmi Mosaku, Omar Miller, Jayme Lawson, Li Jun Li, Tao, and Buddy Guy. Directed by: Ryan Coogler.