Sinners (A PopEntertainment.com Movie Review)

PopEntertainment
Apr 17
3 min read

Updated: 6 days ago

SINNERS (2025)

Starring Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, Miles Caton, Jack O'Connell, Wunmi Mosaku, Jayme Lawson, Omar Miller, Li Jun Li, Delroy Lindo, Yao, Helena Hu, Lola Kirke, Peter Dreimanis, Saul Williams, Andrene Ward-Hammond, David Maldonado, Tenaj Jackson, Aadyn Encalarde, Sam Malone, Ja'Quan Monroe-Henderson, Percy Bell and Buddy Guy.

Screenplay by Ryan Coogler.

Directed by Ryan Coogler.

Distributed by Warner Brothers. 137 minutes. Rated R.

Well, I went down to the crossroads… and found myself some… vampires?

Ryan Coogler’s Sinners takes the audience down some diverse and intriguing paths. And the biggest surprise is how well most of them turn out. Who would have thought of mixing up southern gothic, gangsters, the KKK and vicious bloodsuckers?

Coogler would, that’s who, and good for him for sharing his unique vision.

Sinners stars Coogler regular Michael B. Jordan as a pair of identical twin Black brothers – nicknamed Smoke and Stack – who return to their down-home town from Chicago back in the 1940s. The two are gangsters and show off their affluence and their toughness amongst their beaten-down farming town – a hellish mixture of rednecks, criminals and chain gangs – and they dream of opening a juke joint in which their neighbors can celebrate the blues.

They particularly think they can make a star of their cousin Sammie (Miles Caton), a youngster with an old soul who can sing and play the blues like he has hellhounds on his trail. Of course, Sammie, who is nicknamed Preacher Boy because his dad is a reverend, has his own little crossroads to engage. Does he keep the faith and get into the family business of preaching and singing gospel, or does he follow the trail of sin into juke joints, cheap liquor, loose women and the devil’s music?

He got the crossroad blues this mornin', Lord, baby, he's sinkin' down.

Of course, when Robert Johnson went down to the crossroads, he found the devil waiting for him. In this film, the supernatural threat is very different.

The blues and gangster parts of the narrative fuel the first half of the film. In fact, the vampires just barely show up until the second part. Then they sort of take over things, as vampires are wont to do.

It’s not likely a coincidence when the blues juke joint that is full of celebrating people of color does come under attack from the vampires, all three of the original undead are white. In fact, two of them were KKK members when they were still alive.

Perhaps surprisingly, to be completely honest, the gangster and blues aspect of the film is even better than the horror section, although that is extremely entertaining as well. Once the vampire siege starts, the film settles into some more standard scary movie fare – although Coogler is enough of a visionary filmmaker that he is able to make even the expected parts seem a bit unexpected.

Sinners goes on perhaps a bit too long for its own good – although it does end on a terrific prologue surprise. A section where one of the brothers takes out a bunch of local bigots is intriguing but is sort of off-topic for much of the rest of the film; as it was the undead, not the Ku Klux Klan, who is the main threat here. It almost feels like a bit of an afterthought, which is odd for such vital subject matter.

However, it is just one more of the many issues that makes Sinners stand out in modern Hollywood fare. Sinners has the potential to become a zeitgeist-defining film, much like Get Out was several years back. More importantly, just like Get Out, the film not only has important things to say, but it says them in a truly entertaining way. That is an achievement that deserves to be celebrated.