Genre: Drama/Thriller
Director: Ryan Coogler
Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, Miles Caton, Jack O’Connell, Wunmi Mosaku, Jayme Lawson, Omar Miller, and Delroy Lindo
Runtime: 2 hrs 17 mins
Rating: M18 (Violence and Sexual Scenes)
Released By: Warner Bros
Official Website: https://www.sinnersmovie.com.sg

Opening Day: 17 April 2025

Synopsis: From Ryan Coogler—director of Black Panther and Creed—and starring Michael B. Jordan comes a new vision of fear: Sinners. Trying to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brothers (Jordan) return to their hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back. “You keep dancing with the devil, one day he’s gonna follow you home.

Movie Review:

‘Sinners’ grabs you by the throat with its opening scene of a young, Black man bursting into church mid-sermon, looking dazed, his clothes bloodied, and his right hand clutching tightly a jagged broken-off guitar neck. Only at the end of an intoxicating two-hour journey do we realise how this man, Sammie (newcomer Miles Caton), got to that point, or that most of the movie happens in the day before in the deep Southern town of Clarksdale, Mississippi.

The year is 1932, just right for fabled twin brothers Smoke and Stack (both played by Michael B. Jordan) to return to their hometown after consecutive stints in the trenches of WWI and Al Capone’s Chicago. One of the first things they do is to buy an old sawmill from the Klan, which they plan to convert into a juke joint for the sharecroppers, labourers and shopkeepers of the town – and over the course of the first hour, Smoke and Stack go about town setting up and stirring up excitement for the grand opening that very evening.

There is first and foremost Sammie, a sweetly sincere son of a preacher who, though warned by his father that playing music for “drunkards and philanderers” would invite evil into his life, still yearns to play; and oh, as we learn later on, he also happens to be a supernaturally skilled blues musician, who makes such powerful music that it is able to conjure spirits from the past and the future.

Besides Sammie, they also recruit grizzled blues musician Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo), who, notwithstanding his initial drunkard state, happens to still be great on the piano and harmonica. A Chinese couple – Grace (Li Jun Li) and Bo Chow (Yao) – who run two shops almost opposite each other in town help with the signboard for the place and the groceries for grub. Another old friend, Cornbread (Omar Miller), is hired to be the bouncer for the joint.

Smoke and Stack also get the opportunity to reunite with their former loves, the former deliberate and the latter by chance. With his estranged wife Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), Smoke reminisces over the child that they had lost years earlier, and at the end of that reunion, Smoke asks Annie to be their cook for the evening. On the other hand, Stack happens to be accosted by his former love Mary (Hailee Steinfield), who is still upset over how Stack had left her years ago, but even more so because the twins had not sent their regards or flowers for her mother who passed the day before.

It is a lot to take in within an hour, but besides assembling a colourful group of characters for the evening, this elaborate set-up allows writer-director Ryan Coogler to indulge in plenty of world-building – that includes how places like Clarksdale continue to be haunted by the long shadow of slavery, as well as the Klan; the injustices where workers live on plantations and are paid in scrip instead of real money; or even chain gangs that work alongside the road. You feel the beating heart of the South intensely, and while you would probably be hoping that Coogler had spent more time sketching the characters and relationships, it is nonetheless a rich pastiche that sets the stage beautifully for the next half.

Indeed, it does take a while before the movie gets into vampire mayhem, which we forewarn will no doubt frustrate those simply waiting for the bloodletting to start. What however elevates this above the usual vampire yarn is the form by which these bloodsuckers appear – that is, as a band of Irish folk singers led by Remmick (Jack O’ Connell) and the ‘racist’ couple Bert and Joan (Peter Dreimanis and Lola Kirke) that Remmick had turned just before the sun went down.

Rather than drag out the showdown, Coogler saves it for a thrilling half-hour climax; but more than the bullets, gore and the stakes through the heart, what is surprisingly enjoyable is how this band of vampires taunt their victims, and in particular Sammie, through toe-tapping Scottish-Irish ballads (like ‘Wild Mountain Thyme’) that inject their own rhythm and verve into this unbridled celebration of music and history.

It is in these musical numbers – and especially in a masterpiece of a sequence built around Sammie’s debut performance at the joint, where a rock-and-roll guitarist, tribal dancers and breakdancers, and modern-day deejays show up in an ambrosial scene to blend past, present and future – that reveal the full genius of Coogler’s vision. Oh yes, it would be too simplistic to label this as a vampiric musical; rather, this genre-defying fantasia shows Coogler absolutely invigorated, after being relieved of franchise duty (from the ‘Black Panther’ series) and given the creative license as well as budget to unleash a wholly original creation built upon Black legacy, the blues and a lawless American yesterday.

And with ‘Sinners’, Coogler reinforces once again how gifted a filmmaker he is. Though it runs for more than two hours, you hardly feel any drag; instead, the movie feels propulsive from start to finish thanks to Coogler’s tightly synchronized staging and shooting, complemented by frequent collaborators Ruth E. Carter and Hannah Beachler, whose costumes and production design provide extravagantly lush visual beauty, and Ludwig Göransson’s lush, expansive, Blues-drenched musical score.

Amidst Hollywood’s flight towards remakes and sequels, ‘Sinners’ stands out as a truly visionary original that is bold in both imagination and execution, richly textured, and absolutely gorgeous to behold. Not often do you see a filmmaker blend so many genres and ideas into one with such extraordinary success, not least with such jubilance, rapture and wonder – and this is precisely when it deserves to be seen, shared and celebrated on the biggest screen possible.

Movie Rating:

(Full of jubilance, rapture and wonder, 'Sinners' is a joyous celebration of music, history and vampiric folklore, and is one of the best blockbusters of the year)

Review by Gabriel Chong

Genre: Drama/Thriller
Director: Ryan Coogler
Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, Miles Caton, Jack O’Connell, Wunmi Mosaku, Jayme Lawson, Omar Miller, and Delroy Lindo
Runtime: 2 hrs 17 mins
Rating: M18 (Violence and Sexual Scenes)
Released By: Warner Bros
Official Website: https://www.sinnersmovie.com.sg

Opening Day: 17 April 2025

Synopsis: From Ryan Coogler—director of Black Panther and Creed—and starring Michael B. Jordan comes a new vision of fear: Sinners. Trying to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brothers (Jordan) return to their hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back. “You keep dancing with the devil, one day he’s gonna follow you home.

Movie Review:

‘Sinners’ grabs you by the throat with its opening scene of a young, Black man bursting into church mid-sermon, looking dazed, his clothes bloodied, and his right hand clutching tightly a jagged broken-off guitar neck. Only at the end of an intoxicating two-hour journey do we realise how this man, Sammie (newcomer Miles Caton), got to that point, or that most of the movie happens in the day before in the deep Southern town of Clarksdale, Mississippi.

The year is 1932, just right for fabled twin brothers Smoke and Stack (both played by Michael B. Jordan) to return to their hometown after consecutive stints in the trenches of WWI and Al Capone’s Chicago. One of the first things they do is to buy an old sawmill from the Klan, which they plan to convert into a juke joint for the sharecroppers, labourers and shopkeepers of the town – and over the course of the first hour, Smoke and Stack go about town setting up and stirring up excitement for the grand opening that very evening.

There is first and foremost Sammie, a sweetly sincere son of a preacher who, though warned by his father that playing music for “drunkards and philanderers” would invite evil into his life, still yearns to play; and oh, as we learn later on, he also happens to be a supernaturally skilled blues musician, who makes such powerful music that it is able to conjure spirits from the past and the future.

Besides Sammie, they also recruit grizzled blues musician Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo), who, notwithstanding his initial drunkard state, happens to still be great on the piano and harmonica. A Chinese couple – Grace (Li Jun Li) and Bo Chow (Yao) – who run two shops almost opposite each other in town help with the signboard for the place and the groceries for grub. Another old friend, Cornbread (Omar Miller), is hired to be the bouncer for the joint.

Smoke and Stack also get the opportunity to reunite with their former loves, the former deliberate and the latter by chance. With his estranged wife Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), Smoke reminisces over the child that they had lost years earlier, and at the end of that reunion, Smoke asks Annie to be their cook for the evening. On the other hand, Stack happens to be accosted by his former love Mary (Hailee Steinfield), who is still upset over how Stack had left her years ago, but even more so because the twins had not sent their regards or flowers for her mother who passed the day before.

It is a lot to take in within an hour, but besides assembling a colourful group of characters for the evening, this elaborate set-up allows writer-director Ryan Coogler to indulge in plenty of world-building – that includes how places like Clarksdale continue to be haunted by the long shadow of slavery, as well as the Klan; the injustices where workers live on plantations and are paid in scrip instead of real money; or even chain gangs that work alongside the road. You feel the beating heart of the South intensely, and while you would probably be hoping that Coogler had spent more time sketching the characters and relationships, it is nonetheless a rich pastiche that sets the stage beautifully for the next half.

Indeed, it does take a while before the movie gets into vampire mayhem, which we forewarn will no doubt frustrate those simply waiting for the bloodletting to start. What however elevates this above the usual vampire yarn is the form by which these bloodsuckers appear – that is, as a band of Irish folk singers led by Remmick (Jack O’ Connell) and the ‘racist’ couple Bert and Joan (Peter Dreimanis and Lola Kirke) that Remmick had turned just before the sun went down.

Rather than drag out the showdown, Coogler saves it for a thrilling half-hour climax; but more than the bullets, gore and the stakes through the heart, what is surprisingly enjoyable is how this band of vampires taunt their victims, and in particular Sammie, through toe-tapping Scottish-Irish ballads (like ‘Wild Mountain Thyme’) that inject their own rhythm and verve into this unbridled celebration of music and history.

It is in these musical numbers – and especially in a masterpiece of a sequence built around Sammie’s debut performance at the joint, where a rock-and-roll guitarist, tribal dancers and breakdancers, and modern-day deejays show up in an ambrosial scene to blend past, present and future – that reveal the full genius of Coogler’s vision. Oh yes, it would be too simplistic to label this as a vampiric musical; rather, this genre-defying fantasia shows Coogler absolutely invigorated, after being relieved of franchise duty (from the ‘Black Panther’ series) and given the creative license as well as budget to unleash a wholly original creation built upon Black legacy, the blues and a lawless American yesterday.

And with ‘Sinners’, Coogler reinforces once again how gifted a filmmaker he is. Though it runs for more than two hours, you hardly feel any drag; instead, the movie feels propulsive from start to finish thanks to Coogler’s tightly synchronized staging and shooting, complemented by frequent collaborators Ruth E. Carter and Hannah Beachler, whose costumes and production design provide extravagantly lush visual beauty, and Ludwig Göransson’s lush, expansive, Blues-drenched musical score.

Amidst Hollywood’s flight towards remakes and sequels, ‘Sinners’ stands out as a truly visionary original that is bold in both imagination and execution, richly textured, and absolutely gorgeous to behold. Not often do you see a filmmaker blend so many genres and ideas into one with such extraordinary success, not least with such jubilance, rapture and wonder – and this is precisely when it deserves to be seen, shared and celebrated on the biggest screen possible.

Movie Rating:

(Full of jubilance, rapture and wonder, 'Sinners' is a joyous celebration of music, history and vampiric folklore, and is one of the best blockbusters of the year)

Review by Gabriel Chong