Sinners
Review: Holy Smoke(Stack)s. That was a dumb joke. But this movie is incredible. Ryan Coogler is a mastermind. If you’re unfamiliar, this 2025 film stars Michael B. Jordan in a dual role as twin brothers who return home to Mississippi with plans to open a ‘juke joint.’ Their plans go awry when supernatural forces attack. This is hands down the best movie I’ve seen this year. By a wide margin. All the hype you’ve seen around it is both well deserved & accurate. It is visually awing & bone chillingly scary. But it also has so much depth. It is a legitimate period drama with comedic & romantic elements interlaced with a vampire story. And I honestly think this may be the best vampire movie I’ve ever watched. Marvel needs to just give ‘Blade’ to Ryan Coogler and give him free reign to do what he sees fit. And wow, the music in this film was incredible. The scene where Sammie AKA Preacher Boy (Miles Caton) sings ‘I Lied to You’ is one of the best movie scenes I’ve seen in a very long time. I’ve gone to a lot of 10:15 on a Thursday showings this year, and none had more people at them than this one, which is awesome to see. Just to show how much audience appeal this film has, my theater literally started clapping when the credits rolled and then clapped again after the mid-credits scene. That’s rare nowadays, at least in the showing I attend. I’m going to include some spoiler thoughts down at the bottom of this page so this top portion can remain spoiler free, so the final thought I want to share is that the marketing did this film so much justice. The trailers showed clips from all throughout the film without spoiling anything and I genuinely had no clue where the movie was going to go at any point. In a world where the coolest scenes & sometimes even big twists are shown off in trailers, this film held back and it was exactly the right choice.
High: I struggled here just because the entire movie was brilliant. Coogler’s direction. The setting & costuming. The writing (again by Coogler) of a truly original story. The action was awesome. But I want to highlight the cast here. Michael B. Jordan gave one of his best performances to date as both Smoke & Stack. With this current trend in actors playing dual roles (stay tuned for a list on that soon), it’s interesting to see how an actor attempts to make the roles into distinctly different characters. And Jordan did it. Smoke is confident & stern, but subdued & suave. Stack is cocky & boisterous, with a hint of carelessness. And they are both awesome characters. I spent a lot of time during this movie and on my drive home trying to decide which Michael B. Jordan was cooler, and I’m still not sure, but know they’re both cooler than pretty much anyone ever. The rest of the supporting cast also deserves huge praise. Hailee Steinfeld was a very interesting romantic lead as Mary. Jack O’Connell was so eery as Remmick. Li Jun Li, Yao, & Jayme Lawson were all very good as Grace, Bo, & Pearline. Wunmi Mosaku was so compelling as Annie. Omar Benson Miller was hilarious as Cornbread & Delroy Lindo was equally, but very differently, hilarious as Slim. And finally I want to shoutout Miles Caton who, in his film debut, just about stole the show from Jordan.
Low: My personal low is that this movie had me scared walking out to my car at 1:00 AM. That’s really all I got.
Rating: 9.5/10
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- Spoilers Below
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SPOILER REVIEW:
Vampire Michael B. Jordan is so dope. The mid-credits scene was so dope. This movie was so dope. It genuinely had me on the edge of my seat while also making me jump several times.
When Sammie played and the spirits of musicians from the past came to play, it was brilliant. Then when the musicians from the future (in movie time) started appearing it became a perfect scene.
The big climactic fight in the juke joint was executed wonderfully. Truly an all-time great fight scene that manages to give everyone a moment and keep it clear what is happening all around.
And then, just when I thought the movie was wrapping up Michael B. Jordan (very coolly) came up out of the trees and killed a bunch of Klan members, which was the perfect cherry on top of the film. I truly can’t give Jordan & Coogler enough praise for this movie.
