Sinners Review: Ryan Coogler Conjures a One-of-a-Kind Blockbuster

There are few movies that can blow you away with their sheer scope and technical mastery, while also sending you on the ride of a lifetime and keeping you on the edge of your seat for two straight hours. It’s the kind of grand entertainment pioneered by Steven Spielberg that nowadays is usually just reserved for Christopher Nolan. I mean, who else can deliver a spectacle as enormous and entertaining as Inception or Raiders of the Lost Ark? The answer, as I learned this week, is Ryan Coogler.

The director behind Creed and Black Panther is who we thought he was and so much more. His new movie, Sinners, is the kind of blockbuster masterpiece that seems to come along only once every few years. It’s a genre-bending vampire thrill-ride that was made with so much soul and precision it deserves every cent of the frustratingly expensive movie ticket prices we’re currently facing. Sinners is a movie that, for the first time since I began writing about film nearly 10 years ago, left me speechless.

Sinners is the fifth feature film from Coogler, and the fifth collaboration between the filmmaker and Michael B. Jordan. This time around, Jordan brilliantly pulls double duty as twins Smoke and Stack, ex-soldiers who return to their small Mississippi town in the Jim Crow South after spending a few years robbing gangsters in Chicago. They come back with a truck full of booze and pockets full of money, chasing dreams of freedom that they know is likely always going to be an illusion.

The plan for the Smokestack Twins is to use their influx of Chicago cash to open their own Juke Joint, turning a newly purchased sawmill into a bustling blues club in the span of just a day. By the time night falls and the party begins, their slice of heaven is invaded by a trio of vampires, turning an evening of dancing into an all-night fight for survival.

There are numerous characters and storylines packed into this tale, each given more than enough time to make a profound impact on the film in one way or another. On paper, when you start thinking about all of the various narratives that collide in Club Juke, it sounds like there may be too much going on. But Coogler’s script is expertly paced, not to mention extremely efficient when it comes to giving every character exactly the amount of time they need in order to win over audiences.

Smoke and Stack’s return and redemption are only a piece of the puzzle. The biggest piece, however, belongs to their younger cousin, talented blues musician Sammie Moore (big-screen newcomer Miles Caton, in one of the most confident debuts I’ve seen in years). Sammie’s music is at the heart of the story, illustrating how those melodic stories transcend time, sometimes single-handedly keeping the world spinning.

Then there’s drunken blues veteran Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo), an old flame of Stack’s who returns to town to bury her mother (Hailee Steinfeld), a spiritual healer and the love of Smoke’s life (Wumni Mosaku), an Asian couple supplying the party with food (Li Jun Li and Yao), and a mysterious young singer with an eye for Sammie (Jayme Lawson).

Each member of the ensemble brings their A-game, which shouldn’t be surprising when you consider Coogler’s track record of getting the best performances out of the actors in his films. Everyone who sees this will have a different favorite performance or character, but there’s truly no wrong answer. Personally, I couldn’t take my eyes off Delroy Lindo — his veteran presence really lifts up the younger cast around him, carrying a weight that they’re all able to feed off of. Wunmi Mosaku also gets an opportunity to shine brighter than she ever has before, and, boy, does she deliver. She comes out of this thing looking like a bona fide movie star, more than capable of carrying the weight of an entire film on her shoulders.

Of course, Sinners is Michael B. Jordan’s movie, playing both of the film’s lead roles, and he devours every second he’s on the screen. Smoke and Stack look identical, but Jordan packed so many small, noticeable differences into them. The curiosity in Stack’s eyes and the quiet ferocity of Smoke’s make you believe there are two completely different actors up on the screen. It’s the finest work of Jordan’s career.

It’s also hard to argue that this isn’t the finest work of Coogler’s career. Saying a brand-new movie is better than Creed feels blasphemous, but Sinners marks an evolution of Coogler from his franchise fare, unleashing a level of creativity that had to operate within a box in his previous films. This is a world-class filmmaker at his most confident, taking the lessons he learned in Hollywood’s biggest sandbox and using them to show the world he’s just getting started.

Coogler is able to flex his brilliance on both a technical and a spiritual level. For a movie that was shot in a relatively small location, he utilizes the IMAX and Ultra Panavision film to make Sinners feel enormous, and the attention to detail in every one of those shots is extraordinary. It all feels so tactile and specific and refined. There are some wide shots overlooking the nearby cotton fields that will take your breath away. And it would be a sin in and of itself not to mention the changing aspect ratios shown in IMAX. One moment in the film’s climax sees the entire image extend before your eyes, signaling to everyone watching that something insane is about to happen. I could hear the entire crowd inhaling and sitting up straight all at once, as Coogler used that single ratio change to put us all in a collective chokehold.

[RELATED: Ryan Coogler Got Advice From Christopher Nolan for Sinners]

Sinners is a technical masterpiece, but it’s the emotional soul and personal touch at the center of the film that sends it into the stratosphere. Coogler has often referred to Sinners as “genre fluid” and that term is perhaps the best way to describe what this movie is. It’s equal parts vampire horror and comedy, Southern drama and steamy romance. So many things are dumped into the melting pot and it’s Coogler’s fearless vision that holds it all together. He never sacrifices one element for another; never pulls back on one thing because people might not think it fits. So much is packed into this movie and every part of it hinges on the others. It’s a complicated fabric of genres and ideas woven together, every detail lovingly put into its perfect place by the hands of a caring artisan.

The best example comes in a scene I don’t want to spoil, but one you’ll recognize immediately when you see it. About halfway through the movie, Coogler makes one of the boldest choices you’ll ever see in a studio movie, the kind of choice that lets you know executives had no say in what ultimately made the final cut. It’s a grand moment that weaves together past, present, and future in a glorious explosion of music and triumph. My jaw hit the floor and stayed there for several minutes — it’s still legitimately difficult to wrap my brain around how a person could even come up with such a sequence. Astounding doesn’t begin to cover it.

And you can’t mention the music of Sinners without touching on the rapturous score from Coogler’s longtime friend and collaborator, Ludwig Göransson. The Oscar-winning composer harnesses the power of the blues to compose a score intended to knock your socks off around every turn. These two men have a partnership beyond compare, working in lock-step to leave their individual skill sets so intertwined that it’s impossible to imagine one without the other.

Sinners is a movie that is going to have audiences audibly cheering at numerous points, but not in a frustrating “chicken jockey” kind of way. Community and family are at the heart of Coogler’s revelatory blockbuster, and that is extended out of the screen and into the seats. You’re left cheering for the characters but, really, you’re also cheering on the people sitting in the seats around you. Part of the catharsis that comes with those claps and yells in the film’s final act comes from knowing that you and the people next to you just witnessed something special. Together, you watched magic come to life, and you can’t help but congratulate one another for getting to experience such a wonderful thing.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Sinners lands in theaters on April 18th.