Movie Review: SINNERS

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: April 18th, 2025 / 05:50 PM

SINNERS movie poster | ©2025 Warner Bros.

Rating: R
Stars: Michael B. Jordan, Michael Caton, Wunmi Mosaku, Hailee Steinfeld, Jack O’Connell, Delroy Lindo, Jayme Lawson, Peter Dreimanis, Lola Kirke, Omar Benson Miller, Li Jun Li, Yao, Buddy Guy, Robert Maldonado, Saul Williams
Writer: Ryan Coogler
Director: Ryan Coogler
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Release Date: April 18, 2025

It’s entirely possible that there’s another movie that combines music, period action, and a straight-faced (as opposed to parody) supernatural side the way that SINNERS does, but if so, this reviewer can’t recall it.

Writer/director Ryan Coogler brings this singular tale to life in a manner that can be described as frequently exhilarating. There are comedic moments, but as with BLACK PANTHER, which Coogler also directed and wrote, the movie never makes fun of itself or its subject matter.

Narration explains to us at the beginning that there are some musicians so gifted that they are believed to be able to reach the spirit world and combine past and future. Native Americans call these people “fire keepers”; Africans call them “griots.” Their music can heal, but it can also attract evil.

Then we are on a dirt road in the morning, outside a church in rural Mississippi. A title tells us it’s October 16, 1932. The era’s version of a sports car pulls up, driven by a bloodied, scratched, and traumatized young man, Sammie Moore (Michael Caton).

Clutching the neck of a broken guitar, Sammie stumbles into the church. His father, the congregation’s pastor (Saul Williams), embraces Sammie and exhorts him to renounce the music that brought him to this state.

We flash back one day earlier. Sammie’s cousins, local legends the Smoke-Stack Twins – dead serious Elijah, better known as Smoke, and exuberant Elias, called Stack, both played by Michael B. Jordan – have returned to their small town after seven years away in Chicago.

The twins purchased an abandoned old mill with cash from a disrespectful white townsman (Robert Maldonado). The brothers waste no time in making their intentions known – they are turning the mill into a juke joint.

Smoke and Stack have no trouble recruiting Cousin Sammie, who is a talented singer and blues guitarist, as part of their entertainment crew. Old, experienced Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo) drives a harder bargain, but the brothers get him, too. Sammie’s flirtation intrigues singer Pearline (Jayme Lawson). Old friendships and new money bring in a huge crew of cooks, waiters, card dealers and everything else the joint might need.

Meanwhile, somewhere else, a man, Remmick (Jack O’Connell), who is burning up in the sun bangs on the door of an isolated cabin and begs help from the couple (Peter Dreimanis, Lola Kirke) who live there. Remmick isn’t bothered by the Klan robes he sees through the doorway. We know what all that smoke rising from the stranger’s skin means, but the couple don’t, so they let Remmick inside.

Part of the delight of Coogler’s work here is that both parts of the story – the drama of the twins trying to elevate their hometown while coping with the ever-present scourge of racism, and the vampire horror – can each absolutely stand on their own. But the combination stirs both into something dizzyingly rich.

SINNERS is not a musical where people spontaneously burst into song, but it is perpetually buoyed by music of multiple genres, being performed by the characters. Caton and Lawson both have terrific voices, as do some of the other actors (to name them might be to spoil something). Famous Chicago bluesman Buddy Guy turns up as a character and contributes to the tunes.

The scenes in the juke joint, when the place is functioning as intended, are almost delirious. SINNERS doesn’t just give lip service to the power of music, it puts it front and center. We feel like we are among the dancing throng. There is a fabulously edited sequence, both rousing and horrifying, that contrasts the very different goings-on inside and outside the club.

Coogler sees no need to reinvent the wheel in terms of vampires. The lore is pretty much what we’re used to, although there is some clarification on one point that has been depicted in so many ways over time that it makes sense to explain what we’re dealing with here.

Jordan fully inhabits Smoke and Stack as distinctly separate individuals. Despite their similar facial hair and similar suits (to say nothing of Jordan himself), we’re always sure of which one is which. There is lightness and guile in Stack, no-nonsense toughness and private grief in Smoke, and shared but not identical underlying fury in both.

Caton is appealing, Lindo has expert timing, and O’Donnell lets us see why his Remmick thinks he’s a reasonable fellow. Other engaging performances come from Wunmi Mosaku as a folk magic practitioner, Hailee Steinfeld as someone who used to know the twins, Li Jun Li as a smart grocer, and Omar Benson Miller as the club doorman.

As the film proceeds, the gore becomes more intense. Injuries are very visible, although blood is oddly pale, even when vampires aren’t involved.

SINNERS is not only available in IMAX, but was also shot in the format, which adds to its impact. There is a mid-end credits sequence that is so long it’s surprising it’s not part of the rest of the movie, and a brief post-credits sequence for good measure.

These give us the sense that Coogler didn’t really want to say goodbye to the SINNERS universe, and we understand why. The movie is one hell of an experience, in the best way.

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