Sinners – Review

Cert – 15, Run-time – 2 hours 18 minutes, Director – Ryan Coogler

With the roaring 20s now faded away, twin brothers Smoke and Stack (both Michael B. Jordan) return to their hometown to open a night time music club and bar, however the opening night is disturbed by vampires seeking something within the music.

If you’ve managed to avoid the trailers for Sinners so far continue to do so. It’s amazing just how much of the film they give away, including key moments in the final 10-15 minutes. For those who have seen the trailers already these points likely won’t be spoilt. In their own moments they have a good deal of punch thanks to the style which writer-director Ryan Coogler brings to them. There’s a cinematic flair upheld by a burning fire, sometimes literally, in the filmmaker’s eye increasing the heat of both the tone and visuals.

Luckily, some of the best moments have been left out of the trailer. As the new nightclub opened by twin brothers Smoke and Stack (both Michael B. Jordan, tracking the film’s changing tones and events from both perspectives with some great details) on their first day back in their hometown gets its opening night into full swing Coogler steps into something entrancingly experimental. Like an out of body experience for the film itself as it takes the viewer with it, the sequence – which should simply be left to be seen – is led by the music, initially played by Miles Caton’s Sammie on guitar, as it weaves like the camera through the moving bodies in the busy club.

It’s a strong opener for the twins as they look to move on from their lives in roaring 20s Chicago. Now in 1932, with everyone back home believing they had gangster connections, they simply want to run a business and enjoy good blues music with friends. However, the night is soon disturbed by the arrival of vampires. Properly arriving almost an hour into the film this almost feels like another point that the trailers could have left out as a tonal surprise, although then there could be a very different film being marketed. That film would possibly be more along the lines of the opening hour which sees Jordan’s characters reconnecting with their roots and the town they left behind, bringing the people in it into their venture. Whether that be performing (Delroy Lindo on excellent form), on the door (Omar Benson Miller) or serving food and drinks (Wunmi Mosaku – whose character Annie previously had a relationship, and child, with Smoke.

There are a good handful of characters dancing, performing and discussing business throughout the night before the vampiric arrival, but the events are well tracked. Partly thanks to the feeling of a solid unit in both the cast and the characters themselves but also thanks to the ways in which Coogler tracks things with the camera and editor Michael P. Shawver. Even some sequences in which there are clear cuts feel as if they have a tracking/ one-shot nature because of the fluid nature in which events are caught. Yes, it might take a little bit of time to get here after the slightly unexpected build-up, which adds depth to the central characters, but once the night begins things move along smoothly and in entertaining style.

There’s something to relish in the tension and yet entertainment factor of the vampires, led by Jack O’Connell, standing at the door to the venue asking to be invited in, although much more sinister compared to how this would be gone about in What We Do In The Shadows. There’s a sense of dread once things start to properly go wrong. You can see the first domino truly fall and before it touches the next you know just how things are going to pan out. At least in terms of the doom that’s to follow, not specifically towards who. There’s still a sense of suspense and a darkness which hangs over the proceedings and the character piece things together and try to figure out how to survive the creatures lilting Irish folk songs outside.

Where Coogler fully flourishes is in his big set pieces. While largely confined to the one area for much of the screen-time there’s a busy feeling to the scenery which helps during more chaotic moments of action. As the climax nears you can almost feel the film clenching its fists, steadying its feet; preparing to make the first swing just before the fire bursts into life. From there you can feel the heat of both the location and the moment itself. The rage and fear which has built up over the last near hour as it unleashes in all directions for a spectacular finale – although make sure to stick around to the end where there’s something more sedate yet still effective – fuelled by the scope of Coogler’s direction and cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw.

If you’ve seen the trailers then there’s still plenty of punch and surprises to be found within Sinners and how it works with its characters, and how they work with each other. If you haven’t seen them then continue to avoid them and enjoy the tonal changes and gradually increasing drops of sinister threat as the integral music guides the events, and at times camera, for something which at times is utterly entrancing.

At times entrancing, at others spectacular, and sometimes both. Sinners builds up the heat and darkness yet remains guided by the central music and established relationships between the ensemble whose night is thrown off course in tense and entertaining fashion.