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Ryan Coogler & Micheal B Jordan go 4-for-4 and may just be the 2000’s Scorsese & De Niro or woo & Chow.
Sinners
Director: Ryan Coogler • Writer: Ryan Coogler
Starring: Michael B Jordan, Miles Caton, Delroy Lindo, Hailee Steinfeld, Wunmi Mosaku, Jack O’Connell, Li Jun Li
USA • 2hrs 18mins
Opens Hong Kong June 12 • IIB
Grade: A
It’s a very odd thing to say that in what is largely a period drama with horror, crime thriller and romance (squint real hard) elements the two stand-out moments – and I mean stand the fuck out – are musical ones. the first a trip through history and cultural legacy, the second a sinister celebration of the appropriation of it, and both totally and utterly burn the place down (this really works in IMAX). In his fifth feature (after Fruitvale Station, Creed and a pair of Black Panther movies), director Ryan Coogler has stitched together roughly five genres for one of 2025’s best films so far, as well as one of its most industrially challenging. Sinners (and I know it’s up there but try and avoid the trailer) is the kind of original, non-IP/franchise movie we all whine about not getting enough of on screens these days, and then when we finally do (Better Man) we don’t go see it. Well here’s another chance. I know. Black people, but just give it a try.
In the Jim Crow South of 1932 America, the period when legislators convinced themselves “separate but equal” segregation laws were generous (hey, maybe they’ll make a comeback under Trump 2.0), twin brothers Smoke and Stack (Michael B Jordan) head back to their hometown in Clarksdale, Mississippi from Chicago and an alleged stint with Al Capone. They’re flush with some ill-gotten gains and decide to open a juke joint; think Ernie Barnes’s The Sugar Shack. As if gathering a crew for a heist, Smoke and Stack tap old friends and allies (yeah, sorry, allyship ain’t new) to help out: alcoholic pianist Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo); sharecropper-turned-bouncer Cornbread (Omar Miller); grocers Grace and Bo Chow (Li Jun Li, Babylon, and Yao); hoodoo practitioner, awesome cook and Smoke’s partner Annie (Wunmi Mosaku, luminous); and last but not least their cousin Sammie “Preacher Boy” Moore (Miles Caton in an incredible debut), a blues musician so transcendent he can “pierce the veil between life and death, [and] conjure spirits from the past and the future.” After buying an old sawmill from a KKK piece of shit, Smoke and Stack get to work for the grand opening. And all goes sweatily smashingly until the mysterious Remmick (Jack O’Connell, Ferrari) hears the music and comes knocking.
Looks 18, sounds 118
Before I go on, let’s address the elephant in the room. Sinners is finally getting a delayed release in Hong Kong because it’s been a hit everywhere it’s opened, racking up US$350 million so far. But somehow it’s “not really a hit”… Because the US dollar… “And the marketing costs” say the critics. GTFOH with that nonsense. The elephant is the deal Coogler negotiated with Warner Bros. stating the rights to Sinners would revert back to him in 25 years. People freaked out, studio types called it a dangerous precedent for the industry, even though Coogler has said he’s only doing it for this film. He said this in plain English. No one uttered the word “uppity” but few have pointed out that wannabe-Black dude Quentin Tarantino got the same deal for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood; ironically Warner told him to get stuffed back then. It’s news when Coogler does it and HBO Max Max HBO Max will have to pay Coogler for the privilege of playing the film on its platform – long after its peak value has passed, by the way. Where’s my tiny violin?
All of which is relevant to themes of at the heart of Sinners.
To call Sinners thick with ideas is an understatement. Not a frame is wasted (and I mean “frame” because it was shot on ultra-wide 65mm film) and not a moment of film’s first (totally not boring if you’re paying attention) 90 minutes isn’t loaded with meaning. Coogler’s storytelling is intentional and each scene and each character interaction carries weight. When Smoke visits Grace and Bo, their place in the Chinese community that existed on the border between Black and white at the time is visualised by cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw’s (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, The Last Showgirl) fluid camera work, crossing the street from Black grocery to white grocery and back. Also showing up at the juke is Stack’s ex-girlfriend Mary (Hailee Steinfeld), a woman who can “pass”, who unknowingly entangles the juke with Remmick. Remmick is Irish, whose paganism was repressed by the Catholic Church way back in the day. Clarksdale itself is the location of the legendary crossroads where Robert Johnson struck a deal with the devil to become a great bluesman. The list goes on, but it’s Preacher Boy’s first performance (“I Lied to You”), a personal song about his dad, that sums Sinners up most elegantly. Durald Arkapaw’s at it again, as she and Coogler wend their way through the crowded dance floor as Preacher Boy pierces the veil and summons the spirits of the past and future – from African griots to rap MCs and Xiqu dancers. The idea is that personal art and culture – and music – can exist in harmony just as easily as it can be consumed and commodified by others. It should be cringe but it’s not. It’s lightning in a bottle and will be one of 2025’s most memorable film moments.
None of which means Sinners isn’t also a fantastic horror film. It takes its time getting there, but the slow-building tension and trail of breadcrumbs (the script never tricks us) that lead to the reveal of Remmick’s haint-like nature (Annie’s words) is as strong as anything by a director in A24’s stable and as deliciously gory as anything by Blumhouse. He plays with the language of traditional lore just enough to keep us on our toes while still drawing on the legacy – you know, living in harmony with it instead of stealing it wholesale. All this coming together in one film marks Coogler as a magician for so confidently weaving all these elements together, and creating a tapestry this dense, layered and satisfying. And if anyone doubted Jordan could act his ass off, Sinners should put paid to that idea. Smoke and Stack and two distinct, complete characters (the VFX are spot on) that carry their burdens in distinct ways – though I suspect Stack is more fun, despite Mary’s simmering rage at him. Jordan leads an across-the-board strong cast, from which newcomer Caton stands out, and Mosaku and Steinfeld actually have something to do. The women have complex relationships with Smoke and Stack that also speak to the time and place. O’Connell’s Taishanese (!) isn’t the best, but the fact that an American historical drama has admitted that Chinese people existed in the Delta is a miracle – ditto for acknowledging the theft of Choctaw land when a charming Klansman notes “there’s no Indians around here no more.” This movie doesn’t stop, and all of it is swaddled in an evocative, period-specific score by longtime Coogler composer Ludwig Göransson (Oppenheimer, The Mandalorian). Sinners is how you mash-up genres, enlighten and entertain everyone in art that’s universal precisely because it’s intensely personal.
Also? Stay through the credits.