Sinners

I feel like reviewing this is almost superfluous. Sinners has received so much hype and praise, anything I say will be redundant. I could spend hundreds, if not thousands, of words gushing about everything everyone else has already gone on at length. I don't feel like there's anything to add about the atmosphere, the costumes, the music, the acting, the effects, and the themes of Sinners. But what I can do is explain why I am not as in love with it as others are. It's not an original story. I'm not the first person to make the comparison that this is, basically, Prohibition-era From Dusk Til Dawn. I enjoy it more than Dusk, but the basic foundation of it -- half the movie spent setting up something normal and dramatic, and then steering hard-left into a vampire siege in a bar -- is Dusk. It's far more prestige than Dusk. It's using vampirism to discuss the perversion of religion from spiritual salve to the crushing of the spirit, as well as gentrification. It celebrates the culture of the Mississippi Delta, specifically the African-American culture, in a way that feels welcoming and inviting for non-AA people, but definitely has a second level of resonance for AA people. But it is still just a riff on Dusk. The plot of Sinners also relies on some seriously questionable plot contrivances. In a movie that wasn't so serious or artistically-minded, some of these contrivances could be overlooked. But Sinners, especially in the third act, feels like it has to cheat to get from point A to point B. For all the great writing in the rest of the movie, these shortcuts stand out in the worst way. And the movie does an in media res start, which ought to be outlawed. It has never, not once, proven to be useful for any movie, and never will. These are, by no means, reasons not to see Sinners. Michael B. Jordan is one of the best actors out there today, and considering he plays not one but two roles (one might even say three), he anchors this movie, and does so effortlessly. The costuming and atmosphere are immaculate, both for setting the time and place, and then for when the movie switches gears from drama to horror. The music ... oh, my, the music. Absolutely heavenly. When Preacher Boy broke out the resonator guitar with the steel strings and launched into some Delta-style blues, my heart did flips that would make Simone Biles jealous. The effects were outstanding. Sinners is, without a doubt, worth seeing. I just wasn't in love with it to the degree others are. But I can see why they would be.