Sinners (2025)
Style over substance.
Presentation:
Based on the coverage of this movie, you might expect it to be one of the best films of 2025, which is turning out to be not a particularly impressive feat. It still very well might rock for the audience that this film is targeted toward, but the rest will be scratching their head. Ryan Coogler is mostly known for Black Panther and African-centric films. This film seems to also be squarely aimed toward the same audience with liberal racial and social tones. The first few minutes of the film are executed with artisanal precision, though it focuses on image quality rather than cinematography. The lighting is either dark or a blinding HDR brightness. It essentially turns into 1 hour of world and character building with colloquial banter to sell the personality of the film. The second half then reveals itself as the hidden horror film. It’s hard to decode what this film truly is. Is it a horror or a drama? Coogler attempts to brew a melting pot of genres and mix many themes and ideas together to create something new, but it is ultimately a social commentary piece. Like the narrative, the visuals are distracting, constantly changing aspect ratios from Super Panavision 70mm to IMAX and other formats, which may look great in the theatre but not at home. It’s just bloated with ideas that will undoubtedly appeal to Gen Z audiences. The CGI and background volumes are very apparent and are not helped by the excessive bokeh, which makes actual flowers look computer generated. The presentation can be summed up as music video in style with overhead diffused lighting and a strong color grade. Michael B. Jordan is okay but still a budget Jamie Foxx. The saving grace of this film is the music.
Analysis:
I’m not even sure it’s worth dissecting this film, but it seems to take itself seriously enough to warrant some analysis so here we go. It’s definitely not as smart nor artistic as it think it is. Where Tarantino injects his personality with foot fetishes, Coogler tries to do the same with Cunnilingo. Just weird, bro. There’s no actual thought into the backstory of our main characters and is one Michael B. Jordan not enough? Did they really need to make him a twin and make everything more confusing? And how would such a self proclaimed businessperson be wasting away money frivolously every opportunity he gets? The motivation is just facepalm when it comes to assimilating with the sinners while also against the Klan. And why is following dreams of music a sin? The message is a celebration of black culture so blues should not be at odds with the church, unless the church is considered an evil in this story? Which wouldn’t make sense because Chrstianity is against occult vampires. And seriously what the hell is the purpose of the breastfeeding vision, how can anyone take anything from this film seriously? Don’t even get me started on the cop out of Grace Chow inviting the vampires in out of rage. Sinners is definitely the right title for this film.
Conclusion:
It should be of no surprise that this celebrates black culture, triumphant even. It delves into some roots of slavery focusing on blues music, which is actually very well done. It’s very cool that we get to see Kingfish, Buddy Guy and the nod to Howlin Wolf’s Smokestack Lightning. Ludwig Goransson implements his typical fusion of symphonic and modern hip soundtracks that you would see in Creed and other works. I didn’t like this film, which is surprising given that I play the blues. The music is the best part of this movie, which seems to attempt at introducing the genre to newcomers, though it comes across so simplistically it seems like Coogler is discovering the blues at the same time. The whole film is a whiplash of ideas, messy and convoluted. It’s essentially a Netflix music video dressed up as a film. As for the social commentary, there were moments of cleverness in metaphorically portraying white people as blood sucking thieves of culture, but interestingly opted to prioritize a more harmonious approach with Jack O’ Connell’s fantastic performance. Sinners is obliviously flamboyant and in love with itself, and you might love it too if you subscribe to the assumptions of its premise.
Recommendations
Thematic literature enters the ring.