Sinners (2025)

I don't recall ever going to a theater two nights in a row before. But I was getting tired of knowing so few Best Picture nominees ahead of the Academy Awards. This one makes four for me, and it has the best shot among them at winning.

Sammie (Miles Caton), against the wishes of his preacher dad (Saul William), decides to use his blues singing and guitar skills at a new rural juke joint run by his older twin cousins, "Smoke" and "Stack" (both Michael B. Jordan), who are thuggish yet charismatic to anyone they don't rob or attack. This being 1932 Mississippi, it's only a matter of time until the Black-centric establishment gets unwelcome attention. Well, the Ku Klux Klan shows up in force only near the end, but an even worse menace plagues opening night....

I ought to mention who else is at the joint with permission. Stack wishes his amorous one-eighth-Black ex-girlfriend, Mary (Hailee Steinfeld), wouldn't come, because she's likely to inspire violent resentment by looking fully White. Smoke is more accepting of the presence of his estranged wife, Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), whose Hoodoo beliefs prepared her more than anyone else for the aforementioned menace. Sammie has his eyes on singer Pearline (Jayme Lawson) despite her marital status. Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo) plays piano and harmonica when he's not too drunk. Cornbread (Omar Benson Miller) is the hefty bouncer and a fair-weather friend to Smoke and Stack. Running the bar are the two Asians in attendance, Grace (Li Jun Li) and Bo (Yao, a.k.a. Thomas Pang).

If I hadn't already seen the horror label from Wikipedia's first sentence, I would have little idea for almost the first half of the 138 minutes. Apart from the occasional jump scare, Act 1 plays like a drama. As a result, this feels rather like two movies meshed together. Once the monsters show up, all previous problems inevitably get shoved aside if not forgotten.

OK, time to spell out what the monsters are: vampires, led by Irish immigrant Remmick (Jack O'Connell). The most unusual thing about them is their hive mind. While individuals tend to act similar to the way they did prior to turning, they share all information telepathically and can talk and react in unison. It lends a creepy quality to their otherwise beautiful music when trying to seem harmless.

Lest you think the horror has as little to do with race as in Us, the vampires insist that Black and Asian people would have it better at the top of the food chain than as second-class citizens. They don't appear to persuade anyone, but the temptation is clear. The main question for the folk indoors (where uninvited vampires can't enter) is whether to hole up until dawn or strike now so the nearby town doesn't fall.

Peculiar combination aside, the film is well done. The acting is convincing for the genre. The dialog is deft. The cinematography is excellent. Blues isn't my thing, but the music works too. I won't go into the categories that mean less to me.

Will Ryan Coogler succeed where Jordan Peele hasn't quite yet? Will the Academy finally award an outright horror its highest honor? I wouldn't mind. Stranger things have happened.