Studio: Warner Brothers
Release Date: 7/8/2025
Rating: R
Film Grade: C
The Story: Brothers “Smoke” and “Stack” Moore return to their hometown of Clarksdale, MS after their stint as members of the Chicago mob syndicate. Their dream: use their illicit background experience and open a juke joint for the locals. There’s danger waiting for them, though, as the local KKK isn’t going to take kindly to their presence, but that’s the least of their worries as more evil lurks about.
My Take: This is an ambitious movie, with a story that adds a horror element to a historically-based drama, occurring during one of America’s turbulent times. In addition to that, it adds multiple, diverse themes that don’t ultimately come together into a cohesive work. A tighter focus on specific story elements or one or two themes would have produced a more digestible product rather than trying to combine too many ingredients in a single dish.
The first part of the movie concentrates on how the two brothers build their business, recruiting help, marketing, supplies, and the entertainment. This part is well-done and interesting to see how they plan on introducing some pleasure into the lives of the downtrodden community. Once the horror element is finally introduced, the story becomes something else. The movie both embraces that shift by tossing aside the earlier part of the story but doesn’t go full-tilt into the horror aspect, not knowing exactly which part to focus on.
Thematically, we see much of the same. So many disparate ideas are introduced, such as the power of music, evils of deep-rooted racism and segregation, dichotomy of Hoodoo and Christianity in Southern culture, inequality of the sharecropping system, concepts of the afterlife, and supernatural beings. With that much packed into the story as major elements, it struggles with creating a cohesive vision. Characters act in ways that either service the plot or themes, leading to contradictory actions and dialog.
Setting that aside, the story also opens up a can of worms that it never seals back up. By the end, we’re left questioning how much the characters actually believe in the events they just witnessed. And, if we take things to their logical conclusion, there’s no way human life on Earth could exist as it does today.
Ryan Coogler’s script was too widespread and unfocused for me, but his direction was solid. He gets fine performances from all of the actors, starting with Michael B. Jordan playing the Moore brothers. Continuing on a recent trend, he convincingly plays both parts as different characters. He was so good, that I had forgotten that he had two roles until one scene well into the movie where they embraced. It was one of those often-used back and forth shots that typically shows up with such dual-role films. Miles Caton gives the Sammie character a wandering spirit, typical for a young man who’s not really sure about the future. Jack O’Connell is the main baddie, and while he doesn’t have much screen time, he’s one of the most charismatic and interesting of the bunch. This is similar to how I felt about Coogler’s Black Panther movie, where the main adversary (Killmonger) had more of a presence than the hero. If there’s anything to fault here, it’s the sheer number of characters, spreading focus too thinly among all of them.
Production values are top-notch, with completely believable sets, dressings, and props. Costuming is appropriate for the characters, with most wearing well-worn working clothes. Makeup is effectively gory and also stylistic. One of the highlights are the special contacts that are used for some of the actors, giving off an unworldly effect.
Visuals: Shot on film, some in IMAX, scenes shift between 1.78:1 and 2.76:1 aspect ratios. I’ve never been a fan of this technique but did watch it as intended by the director. As is usual, I fail to see the purpose of having two different sizes and would default to the 2.76:1 version when viewing it in the future. While you do get a taller picture with 1.78:1, it didn’t feel any more impactful or involving. Outdoor shots are wonderfully detailed and lively. Much of the story takes place inside the darkened juke joint, that has a secretive, murky atmosphere.
Audio: The Atmos passes my bird test, although not in one of the opening scenes, when chirping is only heard in the bed layer. Listening to just the tops and wides, they’re primarily used for the musical score, with environmental sounds placed heavily in the seven main speakers. Parts are extremely immersive, with sounds swirling around the audience. Bass is prominent for the music as well, especially with one audacious fantasy segment. My wife and I both struggled with the dialog at time, but that may be due to the dialects used rather than any production issues. I had zero issues with understanding anything said in the plentiful extras.
The music is a mixture of styles, mirroring the number of story elements and themes. The blues figure prominently, but there are also spirituals, Irish folk tunes, and an eclectic score that goes from traditional orchestration to 80s-style vibes.
Special Features: There are an extensive number of detailed featurettes, where many of Coogler’s decisions are outlined including his reasoning for using the expanded IMAX format. Fans of the film will want to dig into them for more understanding of where the ideas came from and how the movie came about.
- Dancing with the Devil: The Making of “Sinners” – featurette (32:35)
- Thicker than Blood: Becoming the Smokestack Twins – featurette (10:45)
- Blues in the Night: The Music of “Sinners” – featurette (13:44)
- Spirits in the Deep South – featurette (7:59)
- The Wages of Sin: The Creature FX of “Sinners” – featurette (10:51)
- Deleted Scenes (18:41)
Final Verdict: While I can see what Coogler was trying to do here, I would have preferred the story stick to either the historical drama or the horror aspects and cut the two hour and seventeen-minute runtime by about 20-30 minutes. As is, it tries to do too much with both and ends up being just an average-level entry rather than a standout for either. My wife liked it more than I did and would rate it as a C+.
Alternatively, this may have worked better as two movies, focusing on the building of the business in part one, giving the audience some more time with the characters and the community, but ending with a subtle reveal of the impending threat. Part two could pick up with the joint’s grand opening, followed by non-stop action.
There’s mid-credit and post-credit scenes, so be sure to stick all the way through. It will have special relevance for fans of the blues.
Fun Fact: Besides Coogler, there’s another connection to this movie and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. A reboot of the Blade franchise was planned but never filmed. Ruth Carter was the costume designer for that movie and was able to arrange the purchase of them at cost, repurposing them for secondary characters for her work on Sinners.
My Review System:JVC DLA-RS3100 4K Ultra High-Definition Front Projector
Elite Screens Sable Frame B2 117” Width with Infinitely Variable Height
Monolith by Monoprice HTP-1 16 Channel Processor with Dirac Live
Monolith by Monoprice 7x200 Watts Amp
Monolith by Monoprice 3x200 Watts + 6x100 Watts Amp
JBL Studio 590 for Left, Center, Right, Wides, and Rears
JBL Studio 580 for Side Surrounds
JBL Studio SCS 8 for Tops
JTR Captivator 1400 Subwoofer X 4
Panasonic DP-UB420 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Player
NVIDIA Shield Android TV - 4K
Xbox One X
HTPC Running madVR (work in progress)
Remote: URC MX-780
Mini DSP 2X4 HD controlling all subwoofers
APC S15 Power Conditioner with Battery Backup
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