If “A Minecraft Movie” is the commercial hit that 2025 needed, then “Sinners” is the creative hit it needed. Writer/director Ryan Coogler has delivered a film that starts off as a compelling-enough 1930’s period piece before wildly shifting into supernatural territory. But the later developments don’t devalue the efforts made in the setup, they simply put the well-established characters on a path they didn’t anticipate.
Speaking of anticipation, I’m going to be vague with story developments so readers can go into this movie anticipating little more than an unspecified good time.
Frequent Coogler collaborator Michael B. Jordan stars as twins Smoke and Stack, a pair of wannabe gangsters returning to their hometown in Mississippi after limited success in Chicago. They purchase an old sawmill and immediately set about turning it into a nightclub. They get help from old acquaintances, like Smoke’s occultist ex-wife Annie (Wunmi Mosaku) to cook and wife-pleasing field worker Cornbread (Omar Benson Miller) to work security. Entertainment in the club is important too, which is why they recruit lushy pianist Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo) and their timid cousin Sammie (Miles Caton) to play guitar. Sammie’s preacher father warns him that he’ll lose his soul at the club, but promises of music, money, and making moves on a married singer (Jayme Lawson) are too great to resist.
Word of the club spreads quickly, and soon the whole town is excited for the grand opening. Even Stack’s tough-talking ex-girlfriend Mary (Hailee Steinfeld) shows up for the occasion, barely let in by Cornbread due to her whiteness, though he relents because she’s a community staple. It’s even harder to gain entry for Irish stranger Remmick (Jack O’Connell). He’s been lured to the club by Sammie’s playing, which is so good that it has taken on supernatural powers. Though ostensibly only there to play banjo, Remmick has ulterior motives that will drastically change the course of the movie.
Again, the movie is pretty good even before Remmick shows up. Jordan has engaging chemistry with everyone, including and especially himself. Everything is top-notch technically, from the costumes to the camera work to the seamless effects that allow for two Michael B. Jordans at once. But things really get turned up a notch when Remmick arrives and the other shoe drops. And Remmick’s shoe really does drop, in a way, because… the genre shift I’ve been teasing isn’t “musical,” but there is a jig.
The rest of the movie closely follows the tropes of the kind of movie it has become. But because there was such an elaborate setup, it seems like all bets are off, even though there are actually very few surprises to those familiar with the genre after a certain point. The characters make some questionable decisions that make me want to rhetorically ask if they’ve ever seen this kind of movie before. Then I have to remind myself that this is the 1930’s and no, they probably haven’t.
“Sinners” is above average as a period piece and roughly average as what I can safely call a “thriller.” But what really makes it special is the way it combines the two genres, or at least that in combination with Coogler’s sharp creative voice. I don’t think I’m overselling it to say that this film represents the kickoff of the 2025 Oscars race. It’s not like there isn’t precedent – “Get Out,” another Black-led “thriller” with a “Black Panther” connection, scored a Best Picture nomination for 2017 with a February opening, meaning that the Academy has to remember “Sinners” for two fewer months. I’m not saying that I’m ready to hand this movie the Oscar, but it’s hard to picture a race where this movie wouldn’t be a worthy contender.
Grade: B
“Sinners” is rated R for strong bloody violence, sexual content and language. Its running time is 137 minutes.
Robert R. Garver is a graduate of the Cinema Studies program at New York University. His weekly movie reviews have been published since 2006.
Last Update: Apr 21, 2025 9:30 am CDT
