Movie Review: Sinners (2025)

Genre: Supernatural Drama Horror Thriller  

Director: Ryan Cooglar  

Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, Jack O'Connell, Delroy Lindo  

Running Time: 137 minutes  

Synopsis: In Mississippi of 1932, twin criminal brothers Smoke and Stack (both played by Michael B. Jordan) return from a stint in Chicago determined to open and operate a juke joint for the black community. Their 17 year-old guitar-playing cousin Samuel (Miles Caton) is the star attraction, over the objections of his preacher father Jedidiah (Saul Williams). Old-timer Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo) and singer Pearline (Jayme Lawson) are the other recruited performers. Smoke reunites with his estranged wife Annie (Wunmi Musako) and Stack tangles with ex-girlfriend Mary (Hailee Steinfeld), but all seems to be going relatively well on opening night until evil personified in Remmick (Jack O'Connell) crashes the party.

What Works Well: Writer and director Ryan Cooglar conjures up an endlessly entertaining and imaginatively artistic wild genre mash-up, most reminiscent of From Dusk Till Dawn. While vampires, violence, blood, gore, and a high body count (all accompanied by a mean humour streak) dominate the second half, the more serious themes established in the opening hour underpin the mayhem. These include music as a cross-generational influence carrying enormous power, crime as a gateway to hell, and the lure of selling black culture to the wrong power brokers yielding decadence. Bathed in visual beauty and decorated by sensational musical numbers, the storytelling benefits from patient pacing anchored in memorable characters and a strong sense of time and place.

What Does Not Work As Well:  Although Michael B. Jordan is excellent, more could have been done to differentiate the twins. Mary's backstory suffers from neglect relative to her intended influence, and a Ku Klux Klan tertiary sub-plot is awkwardly bolted on. The value of the meandering ending is debatable

Key Quote:

Jedidiah: You keep dancing with the devil... one day he's gonna follow you home.



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