Things go dreadfully south during a wild night in a Louisiana juke joint in Coogler’s most original work yet, marked by patient setups, foreshadowing, and playful blending of genres in this fervent, intoxicating music-horror.
Review #2,979
Dir. Ryan Coogler
2025 | USA | Drama, Music, Horror | 137min | 2.76:1 | English
M18 (passed clean) for strong bloody violence, sexual content and language
Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Miles Caton, Hailee Steinfeld, Wunmi Mosaku, Jack O’Connell, Delroy Lindo, Omar Benson Miller
Plot: Trying to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brothers return to their hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back.
Awards: –
Distributor: Warner Bros
Accessibility Index
Subject Matter: Moderate – Mysterious Evil; Sin; Homecoming; Juke Joint
Narrative Style: Slightly Complex
Pace: Normal
Audience Type: Slightly Mainstream
Viewed: In Theatres – The Projector Cineleisure
Spoilers: No
Since his feature debut Fruitvale Station (2013), a social realist American indie that won the Grand Jury Prize (Dramatic) at Sundance, Ryan Coogler, like Jordan Peele, has slowly risen in the Hollywood ranks of Black directors working on larger-scale studio projects.
His most popular movie was no doubt the iconic Black Panther (2018), though the somewhat lacklustre 2022 Marvel sequel, Wakanda Forever (2022), didn’t quite live up to expectations.
With Sinners, he has made a triumphant comeback and his most original work yet, a studio project that feels like he had been given a blank cheque from Warner to do anything.
Starring his longtime BFF Michael B. Jordan, who plays a double role as gangster-like twins, Smoke and Stack, Sinners immerses us into a world nearly a century ago, as the twins return to their Louisiana hometown after a long stint with the Chicago criminal underworld.
As they do what they can to announce their return in a loud, communal way—in the form of a juke joint marked by a wild night of music, dancing, drinking and gambling—things start to go dreadfully south when a mysterious trio of musicians appear at their doorstep.
“You keep dancing with the devil… one day he’s gonna follow you home.”
To say anything more would dilute the fun of blindly going along with the ride. Coogler’s film is not just entertaining, but the stakes are high, developed through patient setup and characterisation.
Tonally, he also foreshadows the anticipation of nightmarish scenarios with some rather jumpy scares at the start, but it is the film’s playful blending of genres—mystery, comedy, horror, the western, and most prominent of all, music—that gives it the kind of fervent, intoxicating atmosphere that invigorates its characters to go all out in defending their turf and values from the intruding ‘Other’.
Cleverly pitting the ‘us vs. them’ trope against the ‘all under heaven’ (or in this case, ‘all in hell’) front, Sinners invites us to think about what it means to take sides for the greater good in a world of, well, sinners.
It is still early to assess the film’s Oscar chances come 2026, but one thing it has going for is its solid commitment to the sonic experience. There are some truly stunning trance-like sequences of music and dance that are worth the price of the admission ticket alone.
Grade: A-
Trailer:
Music:
Eternality Tan 