Lamar Reviews - "Sinners" (Airdate 4/25/2025)

Lamar Reviews - "Sinners" (Airdate 4/25/2025)

Wow, this movie is a lot! It has many moving parts. It is a period piece, a gangster movie, it’s a horror movie, and it’s about the power of music. Now the question, is it too much? Yes, it probably is, but Writer/Director Ryan Coogler manages to make it work. At least it did for me.

Michael B. Jordan plays two characters, twin brothers, Smoke and Stack. It is 1932 in Mississippi, and they have fought in World War I, then lived in Chicago for 7 years, working with the Italian and Irish mobs. Now, they are back with a bag of cash and a truck load of stolen liquor, ready to open a juke joint and make some big money.

They use the bag of money to buy a rundown sawmill. They go around town hiring musicians, like their guitar playing cousin Sammie, played by Gospel and R&B singing great, Miles Caton, and piano banging Delta Slim, played by Delroy Lindo. The brothers both have women they left behind. Mary, played by Hailee Steinfeld, that stack left, without saying goodbye, and Annie, played by Wunmi Mosaku, who smoke shared a child with.

Opening-night is going gangbusters and the blues music that is the soundtrack for the movie is fantastic. All is going well, until the vampires show up. Yes, that is the horror part of the movie, and it is a bloody spectacle. Think Tarantino’s From Dusk till Dawn.

The movie is 2 hours 17 minutes, Rated R for strong bloody violence, sexual content and tons of language, especially about sexual content.

Like I said earlier, it is true there might be too much going on in this movie, but I can’t think of anything I would take out that would not change it for the better.

For the period piece of it, Coogler does an excellent job of showing what it was like for African Americans at that time, in that place. To just say it was a hard, hard life would be disrespectful.

That is where the mournful blues that we have come to love so much came from. I’m sure, as we enjoy the music, we do not normally think about the pain that it originated from.

The cinematography of the huge sky and the endless rows of cotton are breathtaking. The action is nonstop once it starts and is very gruesome. But the music is always there pushing everything in the movie forward. I have to say I have never tapped my foot to the rhythm for the entire time in a horror movie.

When you go, and the movie is over, and you have caught your breath, sit still. Do not get up. There is a post credit scene. After that scene, sit still, do not get up, even if the person sweeping up popcorn is coming. There is still one more scene. Then, get up and walk out, thinking about what a great movie it was.

My Score: 5 frosty cold delicious Budweisers.