Sinners: A bold, bloody, sexy, soul-enriching original story that made me excited about movies again

Ryan Coogler’s Sinners has recently created a storm of praise and excitement in the film world. Rightly so, because it is one of the boldest, most original, weird, sexy, engaging and entertaining films of recent years. Sinners is a wild genre-cocktail of musical, horror, thriller, action and drama. Across its runtime, Sinners draws the most stunning portrait of African-American community, the mysticism and wonders of mortality, as well as how art enables us to escape our physical bodies to ascend to a place beyond time and space altogether. It is a mad film to describe, but it has been a ginormous critical and box office hit, especially so for an original project not based on any existing material.

The film follows twin gangsters Smoke and Stack (both played by Michael B. Jordan with VFX work so convincing you totally forget that it’s the same actor sharing the frame with himself) who return from Chicago to start afresh in their home town in the Mississippi Delta in the 1930s. Over the course of the day they establish a juke joint (essentially a 1930s club with live music) with all their friends, family and loved ones. As the night arrives, a sinister supernatural force emerges, one which radically shifts the film into new territory. The film’s shifting between characters and tones makes it immensely fun, with a first half focused on building relationships between characters so that the horror/thriller/action all-night assault of the second half has serious emotional stakes. It has been advertised as a horror film, and whilst very tense and wonderfully violent in moments, it is more than that. I will not give too much away, as Sinners is best experienced with a lack of prior knowledge.

It being shot on the highest quality celluloid film formats means the film retains a thoroughly gorgeous and deeply cinematic look

It is a really exciting film from a technical perspective. Shot on a mix of IMAX and Ultra-Panavision 65mm film stocks, the film mixes an ultra-wide aspect ratio of 2.76:1 (last used a decade ago for The Hateful Eight) with an ultra-tall image of 1.43:1 for the select IMAX sequences. I saw this on IMAX 70mm opening day and the shifting from a ultra-wide to ultra-tall image was jaw-dropping, opening up the frame in some key sequences to make audiences who see it in IMAX feel as though they are being transported to another place entirely alongside the characters. It stays in the ultra-wide image for the whole runtime when seen on non-IMAX formats, and even then the film is so good that it utilises this rare ultra-widescreen image in really exciting and unique ways. It being shot on the highest quality celluloid film formats means the film retains a thoroughly gorgeous and deeply cinematic look. It is rare for modern blockbuster films to shoot on film, let alone this first-of-its-kind combination, and the results are truly marvellous. This was absolutely gorgeous on the big screen both times I have seen it.

It is also hugely exciting to see a genre film, especially one primarily marketed as a horror film, to get a budget of $90 million. That money is wonderfully displayed on screen with richly detailed costumes, set design, lighting and cinematography. Autumn Durald Arkapaw does marvellous work with lighting and long takes to immerse you in the period, and is the first female cinematographer to ever use an IMAX camera. The ensemble cast is stellar too. Led by Jordan’s true movie star leading-man charisma, he is ably supported by the likes of Hailee Steinfeld, Wunmi Mosaku, Delroy Lindo (hilarious throughout), Li Jun Li, Jack O’Connell (as the villain of sorts) and finally Miles Caton. In his debut performance, Caton as Sammy ‘Preacher Boy’ Moore displays not only a remarkable musical ability but a powerful sense of spirit and passion beneath a seemingly cool and nonchalant surface. Every performance reeks with detailed emotion, and the ensemble creates a sense of history amongst their community that really propels the film forward.

Coogler actually owns this movie, and circumstances such as this help to make Sinners all the more thematically rich

Sinners is a fascinating product of the circumstances of its existence. With Christopher Nolan changing studio allegiances to Universal, Warner Brothers desperately sought to bring new auteur filmmakers to their side. To do so, they went around town giving original voices lots of money and lots of freedom to do whatever they wanted. One of those people was Ryan Coogler. Director of Fruitvale Station, Creed, Black Panther and its sequel Wakanda Forever, Coogler was given $90 million to make whatever he wanted with total creative freedom and the rarest of contract clauses; after 25 years, the copyright ownership of the film will revert from Warner Bros back to Coogler, the kind of deal reserved only for the most respected of filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino. Coogler actually owns this movie, and circumstances such as this help to make Sinners all the more thematically rich.

In detailing how communities come together for nights such as the one depicted here, Sinners says a lot about spirituality, art and how special it is to be alive whilst the spectre of death looms over us. There is one much-talked-about scene just before the halfway mark in which Sammy’s performance at the juke joint on his guitar creates an artistic and communal soul so pure that figures from across time and space enter into the joint, before the building metaphorically burns down and transcends physical reality itself. It is the kind of bonkers, visionary, all-timer moment that allows Coogler to establish himself as one of the most exciting filmmakers around now that he is free from Marvel’s creative shackles. It is moments like these that tell a story, often with the aide of Ludwig Göransson’s truly extraordinary musical score, about people coming together to fight for what they love, and it is truly joyous. Despite all the violence and shocks that occur in the second half, the film finds a way to celebrate mortality, and how being truly alive, knowing that we will someday leave this earth, is what makes us human.

When we are able to express ourselves so truly through art, we escape to another plane of existence entirely where time cannot hurt any of us, and Sinners expresses this with such optimism and hard-fought joy

I find it even more moving as a lifelong film lover to see another filmmaker express, via the medium of music within his cinematic medium, just how soul-enriching art is and can be, and how art is in many ways how human beings escape their mortality, even if just for a second. When we are able to express ourselves so truly through art, we escape to another plane of existence entirely where time cannot hurt any of us, and Sinners expresses this with such optimism and hard-fought joy. It does all this whilst also touching on ideas of assimilation, migrant identities and culture clashes in really fascinating ways through its unique twists on familiar supernatural lore.

If these ideas sound a little hard to grasp, do not worry; the film is both super accessible and fun! I’ve seen Sinners twice in a packed house and the audience was so responsive with laughter and jumps throughout, making this even more exciting. This is a rollercoaster ride of a movie, and more than anything Coogler just wants you to have as much fun as possible, putting you through the highs and lows of a runtime which shifts from love to joy to sexual ecstasy to despair to terror to violence to liberation and back to joy again. The film has two credits scenes, the first of which is the proper ending of the film in my opinion. I highly recommend staying for both but that mid-credits scene is essentially where Coogler ties the bow on his ideas, and ideally should be the scene the film actually first cuts to black.

Sinners is a triumph for us and the industry by proving that original ideas and unique filmmaking approaches from a diverse range of voices will always have a place in popular culture

I’ve expressed many elements of why I find this film so exciting and visionary, but the core of what has made the film world go so crazy for Sinners is how it has made it so affirmatively clear that audiences do in fact want to see original stories. In an era of Hollywood filmmaking so inundated with franchises and remakes, original stories, let alone successful ones at the box office, feel incredibly hard to come by. Sinners is a triumph for us and the industry by proving that original ideas and unique filmmaking approaches from a diverse range of voices will always have a place in popular culture. I love it, everyone I know loves it, and I implore you to see the film and support it. It is an absolute blast, whilst also being thematically rich and life-affirming. I really could not ask for a better time at the movies.

Sinners is in UK cinemas now.