By Zach Goins
April 18, 2025
Director Ryan Coogler has always moved with purpose, but with his latest feature film, he’s moving differently. Sinners is a fully-formed, unfiltered vision – raw, original, and electrifyingly alive. It’s the R-rated spectacle we’ve been starved for: bloody, sexy, soulful, terrifying, and hilarious, all in one breathless swing.
The trailers have made it clear that Sinners is a vampire movie — but you wouldn’t know it for a good hour, and that’s part of the brilliance. Coogler takes his time laying track, slowly and seductively pulling you into 1932 Mississippi. It’s here we meet twin brothers Smoke and Stack, both played with magnetic swagger by Michael B. Jordan, in one of the most impressive double performances in years.
The twins have outrun their past, leaving behind their sharecropper roots for the underworld of Chicago crime. Now, they’re back in Clarksdale, ready to open a juke joint and reclaim some kind of peace, and maybe even a little power. But in the Jim Crow South, peace is a fantasy, and power often comes with a body count.
The first hour plays like a Southern-fried hangout film – part gangster tale, part communal blues jam – as we settle in with the people of Clarksdale. There’s Hailee Steinfeld’s Mary, all smoky glances and steel backbone; Delroy Lindo’s Delta Slim, a walking jukebox of pain and wisdom; and Wunmi Mosaku and Jayme Lawson, who bring soulful skepticism and rule-breaking rebelliousness to their characters, Annie and Pearline, respectively. Then there’s the breakout: newcomer Miles Caton as Sammie Moore, the preacher’s son with music in his soul and wonder in his eyes.
Jordan delivers not one but two standout performances, giving each brother distinct rhythms – Smoke with a smoother, softer and pragmatic business mindset, while Stack is the more impulsive, jagged livewire ready to catch fire. But Caton is the revelation. In his first-ever role, he’s toe-to-toe with the likes of Jordan and Lindo, carrying scenes with grace, vulnerability, and magnetic screen presence. His musical performance at the juke joint is a showstopper, but it’s the quiet moments – watching a young man come into his own – where he truly shines, capturing innocence without leaning into naivety.
Then, about an hour in, the joint opens – and so does the film. Literally. The screen widens, the aspect ratio expands, and Sinners morphs before your eyes. Coogler throws open the doors to the supernatural in a transcendent musical sequence, and all hell breaks loose.
The vampire reveal is brilliantly timed – first a suspicion, then a lingering anxiety, and at last, full-blown brutality. These creatures don’t just bite — they devour. The design is haunting in its restraint – subtle shifts in behavior and physicality that ratchet tension to a scream. When Coogler finally unleashes the full horror in the third act, it’s a glorious, grotesque spectacle.
What separates Sinners from other genre-blending films is how confidently it straddles tones. It’s laugh-out-loud funny one minute, wrenchingly emotional the next, then utterly terrifying after that — yet somehow, it never feels disjointed. That tonal tightrope is thanks in large part to the score by Oscar-winner Ludwig Göransson (Black Panther, Oppenheimer, Wakanda Forever), who goes full mad scientist – blues, psych rock, jazz, gospel, and orchestral melodies all swirl into something that feels like it should never work – and yet it accents Coogler’s evil genius. A longtime collaborator of Coogler’s, it’s safe to say no one in the film score space is currently moving like Göransson, as he constantly reinvents the rules of how a movie can sound.
Sinners is a film built for IMAX, and Coogler knew how to use that to his creative advantage. The director spent 10 minutes with Kodak in a viral video breaking down aspect ratios and the various formats in which you can see the film. This movie plays with aspect ratio like a weapon, stretching and squeezing the frame to amplify feelings of claustrophobia, adrenaline, or awe. It’s a technical masterclass, but never at the expense of the story or its soul.
Ryan Coogler, the director of Black Panther and Creed, breaks down each film format and the many ways you can see Sinners on the big screen. Sinners, shot on KODAK 65mm film is only in theaters April 18. #SinnersMovie pic.twitter.com/5t4ld8wjyt
— Kodak (@Kodak) April 10, 2025
Sinners is a dream of a movie — until the nightmare kicks in. But even when the walls start closing in and the blood starts flowing, it’s a ride you want to take. It’s cinema with teeth. And we’ve been hungry.
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