Sinners Review: A near-perfect genre-blender
I wasn't really that serious about checking out new releases last year: I mostly just went to see what sounded interesting to me and try to work on my backlog. So, basically, I initially skipped this film because a lot of vampire films just aren't interesting to me. However, now that I'm binging through the Oscar winners, I finally got to see what this ridiculously popular, 16-time nominee is all about! Thanks for stopping by the Reel Ranker today... I'm so eternally grateful for anyone who enjoys reading through my content! I hope you get something out of today's Sinners review, and let's get started!
As always here on The Reel Ranker, I will start this review with the negatives and then move into the positives. I only have two major complaints about this film. The first is the lack of an early-game setup for the vampire storyline. Once the vampires show up, the whole execution is really well done, but I felt the film so unceremoniously tacked on that one little setup scene at the beginning. It felt abrupt and unsatisfyingly unaddressed. With a film that sets up its protagonists so well, you'd have thought they would have done a little more to set up the villains.
Unfortunately, that's not the case. This also leads to the point that, while the vampire stuff is great, everything beforehand is simply so much more captivating that I felt it could've been a tad better comparatively. I say this as someone equally interested in black history, blues music, and horror flicks—the horror was truly the weakest element of the film, especially in the last few minutes, when some of the rules about the vampires set up earlier are just thrown out the window. But, don't get me wrong, it's still great, which I'll get into soon!
My other negative is the film's lack of commitment and the weak handling of its themes. The film introduces so many interesting themes, explores them for a grand total of 42 seconds, and then moves on. I felt the film could've leaned a lot harder into the surrounding elements that made it superb in the first place.
Now, let's get into the positives! My favorite part of this film is its incredible foundation. I've never seen a horror film so beautifully build up the status quo before breaking it down. The story about getting the gang back together to start up a place for black refuge and safety was so heartwarming and fun. I love music and olde-town vibes and all of that was done incredibly here! There were so many fantastic elements to this story that I have to discuss! First of all, the relationship between Smoke and Stack is fantastic right out of the gate!
While Michael B. Jordan wasn't the best performance of the five for me, the fact that he played two great characters and that he had to realistically bounce off himself really warranted the win, and I can't complain because he's so great in the role. Smoke and Stack are super cool, and after they go to recruit their cousin, the band gets bigger, and he's a solid character, too. He is one of the film's least interesting supporting characters, but the film sets a decently high bar, so that's not at all a complaint of mine.
Delroy Lindo and Wunmi Mosaku were solid supporting characters who added quite a bit, but I felt they were underutilized for most of the runtime. I can't quite say I'd give them award consideration, but I do find their characters great! The only problem with the supporting role Oscar is that some will be a glorified cameo, and some will literally be the main antagonist... It's simply very odd to put characters like Lindo's up against Sean Penn's Lockjaw or Mosaku's against Amy Madigan. Truthfully, I think another actor category or increasing the supporting nominations to 10 would do a lot of good, so we could continue highlighting great supporting characters like these without discounting others.
I also really appreciated the inclusion of Hailee Steinfeld's character! Her and Stack's relationship is so heartbreaking and may have been my second-favorite part of the film, after the film's impeccable vibe. I just love these against-all-odds kind of relationships, and I always love the token white character who isn't a prick in movies like this. I appreciate Coogler and co. making a plotline like this when they really didn't need to be, because a vast majority of white people in the 1930s were terrible. Yet Stack's plea to her not to be with him because he's black, and her desperation as she tries to defy him, were such beautiful plotlines. I'm just a sappy lug when it comes to defying odds in relationships, and I love how those two characters always saw the best in each other.
The last little comment I have is that I loved the inclusion of the Chinese couple here. I feel like Chinese-Americans aren't tackled too much in films of this time period when they really deserve to be, as they went through so much horrible stuff as well. I was just really happy to see them invited to the joint! Gathering all of these lovely characters together in a fatal bottle thriller was so heartbreaking, as you just have to hold on to hope that your favorite character will survive the night.
While the horror is never as interesting as the rest, the fact that you care so much about the rest amplifies the scares, even if it's not the best. While vampires honestly are one of the least frightening things about 1930s America, I like how the vampires can represent multiple themes here, from the dangers of assimilation to the violence of Klansmen to exploitation... they all work in their own way to be a subtle background noise to the upfront vampire action, even if they are sadly too underbaked, as I mentioned earlier.
And, lastly, of course, the score and the cinematography are firing on all cylinders. The blues soundtrack and the cinematography make the film an audiovisual delight. No time is this more manifest than in the second act, generational music scene. While the themes are underbaked in the sequence, the visuals were incredible!
The Reel Ranker Verdict
Reel or Unreel? - Reel
The Reel Ranker Score: 86%
Letter Score: S-
Star Ranking: 4.5 out of 5
While Sinners may have some underbaked themes and a few minor story flaws, its genre-blending historical-musical-vampirical style and fantastic performances secure it as a fantastic flick. It's so refreshing to see a horror film get this many nominations, and I hope more "elevated" horror films like this will continue to get Oscar recognition in the future, because it's always well-deserved.
Interested in checking out my reviews for the other 98th Academy Awards season films? Check them out below!
Brighton Nelson
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