Sinners

UK Release Date. 18 April 2025
Certification. 15
Running Time. 2 hours 17 mins
Director. Ryan Coogler
Cast. Miles Caton, Michael B. Jordan, Jayme Lawson, Li Jun Li, Delroy Lindo, Wunmi Mosako, Jack O'Connell, Hailee Steinfeld.
Rating. 78%

Review.

Ryan Coogler’s new film, Sinners, has to be experienced in the cinema. Not only for the visuals - don’t get me wrong, the visuals are impressive - but Sinners is a film that demands immersion. The music alone - from the songs performed by characters to the Blues-drenched score by Ludwig Göransson - takes the film to another level. Music is portrayed as a gift, a curse, and as a magnet for good and evil.

Michael B. Jordan stars in a dual role as the twin brothers, Smoke and Stack. Returning home to rural Mississippi in 1932, after a dubious venture in the Chicago underworld, the brothers plan to open a juke joint for the town's black population.

Sinners is in no rush to reach its dramatic climax. Coogler masterfully lays the groundwork, patiently assembling his cast, leaving ample time and space to fully introduce and explore psyches. Each character is sketched out, and their backstories are revealed organically. Throughout it all, the supernatural elements lurk quietly in the background. By the time the bloodshed finally begins, Coogler has fleshed out these characters so evenly that it’s inevitable the audience is heavily invested in their struggle to survive.

The introduction of Remmick (a wonderfully menacing Jack O'Connell) sees the film's second act switch to a horror-survival film in the mould of John Carpenter's The Thing, James Cameron's Aliens or Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk Til Dawn. The tension in some of these latter sequences involving Remmick is almost unbearable. 

Alongside Michael B. Jordan’s accomplished performance, the supporting cast are excellent. In particular, Wunmi Mosaku (as Smoke's estranged wife, Annie) is especially impressive, comfortably matching Jordan’s energy while also expressing deep-lying emotion through her eyes. 

The film is tightly structured and paced, with Coogler making every frame count. On paper, combining so many tropes and themes into one narrative could have been a car crash, but Coogler makes it work. Somehow. Fearless, inventive and ridiculously stylish - Coogler has no qualms about infusing the film with a rush of seductive allure that casts an entrancing spell alongside the music. Music is so important to the film that there’s a standout extended sequence that sees Sammie (Miles Caton) performing while a cacophony of musicians and dancers from different eras appear around him. A gorgeous, decadent and hedonistic sequence to rival the chaotic, introductory party sequence in Damien Chazelle's Babylon. 

The only criticism I have with Sinners, is that after the supremely crafted opening, the fate of the patrons of the club in the final confrontation is rushed and, as a result, somewhat underwhelming.

In a relatively short filmography - Fruitvale Station, Creed, Black Panther and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever - Ryan Coogler has established himself as an exciting prospect. With Sinners, Coogler has produced a rich, multi-layered, transcendent film that has a lot to say and the ability to say it with beauty and coherence. Terrifying, yes, but like the best entries in the horror genre - it's so much more.