Sinners (15) |Close-Up Film Review

Coincidentally when I saw this film I was at the time reading Harper Lee’s classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird, on which is based the film of the same name.  

Sinners is also set in the Deep South of America and also takes place in the nineteen thirties but this is a very different story, told from a black perspective and celebrating black culture.  

Newcomer Miles Caton plays Sammie the, cotton picker son of a preacher man, so also known as Preacher Boy.  Sammie is a naturally talented musician.   Defying his father, Sammy joins forces with twins Smoke and Stack, (both played by Michael Jordan), who have just returned to their home turf having made a pile of money doing dirty work in Chicago for Al  Capone.  Their aim is to open up a music and booze juke joint and Preacher Boy’s musical talents could be useful to them. They also recruit ageing, booze loving harmonica and piano player Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo) and the Chinese couple who run the local grocery store to help them find and prepare the new premises – all in one day – impressive.

For the first hour the film is a convincing drama about life in the American south in the thirties, gradually revealing its characters and the society in which they live.  It really takes off though with the opening of the joint.  Great music, both blues and intimations of music yet to come from the blues in future times, some very vibrant and sexy dancing and a lot of hooking up.  Smoke has reignited his former relationship with Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), with whom years earlier he had a baby, who died.  And as the joint begins to get jumping, Mary (Hailee Steinfeld), Stack’s former lover, turns up.  As Delta remarks “White folks like the blues just fine; just not the people who make it.” -and the fact that Mary is white reminds us of the social reality of the times.   But despite protests from the others, Stack insists she be admitted.

Then a trio of white hill-billies turn up with their banjos and such, let by Irish born Remmick (Jack O’Connell,).  That strange glint in his eyes gives us the clue.   We’re about to embark on a black version of the situation in that early Tarantino/Rodriguez vampire movie From Dusk till Dawn.   And once the vampires have tricked their way into the joint, some very impressive, violent and scary hell breaks loose.   Amongst other highlights, the sight of Remmick in full vampire mode doing a triumphant bit of river dancing is a sight to behold.

So soon after seeing Robert di Niro hog the two lead roles in Alto Knights, one hopes this isn’t going to become a trend – one actor doing another actor out of a possible job.   Casting Jordan as identical  twins though is a smart move.  After an impressively cool first shot of them sharing a cigarette, we manage to identify them, in that Smoke wears a cap and is the less violent of the two, while Stack sports a fancy hat and has gold trim on two of his teeth.  In the early part of the film, though, when the hats are off you have to rely on the teeth.

The real discovery of the film however is Caton as Preacher Boy.   He is the moral heart of the story.  We pretty much experience it through his eyes.   No offence to Jordan but other scene stealers are Steinfeld as Mary, Wunmi Mosaku as Annie and Lindo as Delta Slim, whose assured characterisation effortlessly dominates every scene he’s in. 

The film is an interesting departure from director Coogler’s previous work – the Black Panther films and Creed.   A strong story, a fabulous celebration of black music and as for the vampires….?  There’s a legend, which Coogler cites a his inspiration for that element of the film, that Mississippi bluesman Robert Johnson, credited with being the father of rock’n’roll, sold his soul to the devil in return for fame and fortune.  I don’t believe it, but then I don’t believe in vampires either.   However the combination makes for a great movie story.