The Genius of Ryan Coogler’s Sinners

BY: JOSEPH SIMILE / EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

While this article attempts to avoid spoilers when possible, the exploration of the film’s themes will inherently spoil some plot events of the film, and there is extensive discussion of the film’s ending.

Photo via Entertainment Weekly

Ryan Coogler’s breakout horror film Sinners has quickly become a box-office darling, and it is not slowing down. Sinners has grossed over $123.2 million domestically and $163.2 million globally over its past two weekends. It wasn’t just a strong opening weekend that has given Sinners it’s success, Sinners’ second-weekend drop was just 6%, the lowest for any film opening north of $40 million since James Cameron’s Avatar in 2009, and it’s the lowest mark for a rated R movie of that size in history.

Sinners is Coogler’s fifth feature film, and while it may be crazy to say for a director who has grossed over $2 billion worldwide at the box office; it has a very strong case to be Coogler’s magnum opus. Sinners currently holds a staggering 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, but to analyze the film as a whole, we have to analyze the individual parts that come together to make a masterpiece of a sum.

It’s important to set the stage. Sinners stars Michael B. Jordan as a pair of identical twins, Smoke and Stack, who return to their hometown in the Mississippi Delta after working for the Chicago outfit. Jordan, despite wearing nearly identical clothes differentiated by colors (Smoke in blue and Stack in red), delivers an incredible performance depicting two very different characters, toeing the line of twin familiarity while showcasing their different motivations and tendencies. 

Hailee Steinfeld, Jack O’Connell, Wunmi Mosaku, Jayme Lawson, Li Jun Li, Omar Miller and Delroy Lindo all play incredibly captivating characters who truly help bring the setting to life, and all are worthy of further explorations of their respective characters, but the true standout performance came from Miles Caton, who’s only 20 years old.

Caton had minimal on-screen acting experience before Sinners, but delivered a performance that truly stood out above the rest, portraying Sammie “Preacher Boy” Moore, the cousin of the SmokeStack twins. Preacher Boy earned the nickname on account of his father being a pastor, but Moore’s passion and drive lie in music. As an aspiring blues musician, he demonstrates a naturally gifted talent on the guitar and with his vocal cords. Preacher Boy spends the entirety of the film as something of a novice when it comes to life experience, watching his cousins operate meticulously to open their juke joint on time. 

Preacher Boy goes through the movie with something of a hopeful glimmer in his eye, while taking in the experience of a true night out at the Juke Joint before delivering the performance of a lifetime. 

The story draws clear inspiration from the blues culture of the Mississippi Delta, and its religious themes reflect that. Preacher Boy’s playing of the blues drawing in the vampires is a clear reference to the great blues musician Robert Johnson, who, according to an old Delta adage, sold his soul to the Devil in order to gain the ability to play the blues as beautifully as he did. The blues, for a long time, were seen as the antithesis of Gospel. 

Similar to the tale of Johnson, Preacher Boy defies his pastor father’s wishes by pursuing the blues. Preacher Boy’s playing of the blues wows everyone, including veteran musicians. There is a scene while Preacher Boy plays at the Juke Joint where he summons and connects with musical spirits of the past and the future of the African diaspora, showcasing tribal music, funk, rock, R&B, and hip-hop. Many described Johnson’s playing as being something no other man can replicate, a style that was truly one-of-a-kind and something of an enigma.

The setting of Sinners is as much of a character in the film as Smoke and Stack. Set in the Mississippi Delta in 1932, surrounded by sharecroppers, racism, and Jim Crow. As much as the film shows you, it also informs you of how much Jim Crow and racism are an overarching fear in the back of character’s minds. Preacher Boy asks his cousins if they have Jim Crow in Chicago, assuming that they don’t in the north, to which the response was that Chicago is just Mississippi with tall buildings. 

The Ku Klux Klan also plays a major part in this film. The twins clock Hogwood as a member almost immediately in the film, and they were correct. The couple that Remmick turns when he makes his first appearance were also depicted as Ku Klux Klan members. At the end of the film, the KKK attacks the saw mill, as warned by Remmick. This attack had nothing to do with the vampire outbreak, it was a planned attack that was going to happen regardless, on account of the twins being black. The primary source of a physical threat is the vampires, but the attack also demonstrates that the Juke Joint was doomed from the start. If the vampires weren’t in the movie, the twins were likely to die. The KKK members were always going to show up and attack.

As much as the film is about hate and physical threats, it is also so much more about community and family. The title “Sinners” is inherently ambiguous in the context of the movie; there are clearly sins being committed throughout the film, yet the film doesn’t condemn them, especially as they work in favor of bringing together the community. Smoke and Stack are able to buy the land of the sawmill and open the Juke Joint by robbing; their alcohol stash came from a robbery, crossing the Chicago Italians and Irish, and pinning the respective robberies on the opposite group. 

To even get to that point, both Smoke and Stack abandoned their partners to chase their Chicago dream. Stack abandoned Mary, who waited for him to return despite that never being his intention. Smoke left his wife, Annie, after the death of their infant daughter. Both Smoke and Stack make the decision to abandon their significant others. Smoke’s decision partially lies in the grief he feels of losing his daughter, while Stack felt it was best to protect Mary from the danger of being with him.

While the Juke Joint was brought to life to be a profitable business venture, it was also about the community. People came together, and for one night, got to be free. They got to gather and drink and eat and dance, they got to be one. 

Even in the case of the vampires, who serve as the antagonists of the film, they truly seek out community. Remmick, the leading force of the vampire herd he turns, specifically wants Preacher Boy to become a vampire because of his music’s ability to upend through time. Remmick longs for community, and Preacher Boy’s ability would help deepen Remmick’s connection to his own ancestors and loved ones. Remmick spends the film offering would-be vampires a chance at becoming part of his community, a community that gathers via song and dance and lives in eternity. 

Remmick’s motivations also aren’t inherently evil, yearning to defeat evils such as the Ku Klux Klan. Despite the fact that after being turned, each individual vampire becomes part of a hive mind, whether they like it or not, each vampire displays unique personality traits that are true to the people they have turned into. We even see moments where they seemingly snap out of it, specifically with how Stack and Mary act when Annie dies. They show a glimpse of shock and grief, and it completely changes their actions, causing a quick retreat after seeing Smoke drive a stake through Annie’s heart, freeing her from an eternity as a vampire. 

We also see in the post-credit scene the exemplification of family and community. Stack and Mary visit an older Preacher Boy, now an accomplished blues musician. They sit and listen to him play a tune, but don’t attack him. They offer to let him turn and live in perpetuity, but he declines. Stack offers up that that was the condition he made with Smoke, to leave Preacher Boy unharmed. Preacher Boy tells the couple that before the sun set, it was the greatest day of his life, everyone felt free, and it was one big party. Stack agrees with the notion, also offering that it was the last time he saw the sun, and more heartbreakingly, the last time he saw his brother. 

The idea of identity is also ever-present, especially in the case of Smoke. Smoke sees himself in so many different lenses that create the most sophisticated character in the entire film. When we are first introduced to Smoke, he sees himself as the responsible one of the two brothers, telling Preacher Boy to watch his brother and make sure his back is watched, as Smoke doesn’t believe Stack is particularly cognizant of the threats that surround him. The decision to be the one left alone when the twins split up, leaving Preacher Boy with Stack, also reflects Smoke's confidence in himself, especially compared to his brother. 

When Smoke goes into town, he portrays himself as a respectful but deadly badass and businessman. He teaches a young girl how to negotiate when hiring her to watch his truck while he makes orders for the grand opening of the Juke Joint. When two people attempt to rob his truck, he shoots one initially before dealing equal justice to the other, making sure that he can’t leave with a tale of “almost” robbing the SmokeStack twins, without a wound to show for it, protecting his reputation.

Smoke also sees himself as a father, but also as a man who is irredeemable as a man because of his past sins, while also being unable to save his child, even if the situation was out of his hands. He feels a sense of shame about his past, about leaving Annie, and about his daughter dying. On the other hand, as a World War I veteran, he also views himself as a soldier, as a killer, as a many who will kill if given the order. Stack also sees himself in that regard, as the two served together in World War I.

Annie is depicted as being very spiritual, a hoodoo healer whose apparent supernatural powers are the first otherworldly glimpse we see in the film, long before the vampires arrive. Smoke doesn’t believe in much spiritually, yet he wears a Mojo Bag made for him by Annie, at the very least, ever since he’s left. Annie believes this has protected Smoke throughout his dangerous journey, and it protects him until the end when he decides to remove it to be reunited with Annie and their daughter. Smoke’s decision to wear the Mojo Bag seems like a direct conflict of his beliefs, but it illustrates a belief just as powerful as a spiritual or religious one: his belief in Annie. He believes that Annie, if nothing else, will keep him safe. As attached to Stack as Smoke is, Annie is arguably his north star. In the film’s finale, it’s Annie who is calling him to the afterlife, not Stack. 

Preacher Boy sees himself as a blues musician. He shows a typical young adult tentativeness at first, especially in the face of his father, who encourages his son to take up the covenant. As the story progresses, we see Preacher Boy more and more claim the persona of a blues musician. He feels as though it is his calling. Despite Smoke’s insistence that Preacher Boy pursue a different path, Preacher Boy stands tall in his assertion that the blues is his future. Preacher Boy spends the movie believing his guitar was once owned by Charley Patton, as Stack had told him. 

At the end of the film, Smoke reveals that it belonged to his and Stack’s father, who was depicted throughout the film as being an evil man. Preacher Boy was told by Smoke to bury the guitar after the events of the film, and Preacher Boy returned to his father’s church, wielding a piece of the broken guitar, but instead held on to it. This is Preacher Boy’s true final confirmation that he at his core, is a blues musician, despite his father’s earlier warning that the blues are supernatural, and the events of the film. The blues have long been considered to be an embodiment of evil in folklore, but it’s also a beautiful art, and it clearly spoke to Preacher Boy. 

In the end, the characters never got to experience the freedom they sought throughout. Some searched for it in religion, the twins fought for it in the war, they made lots of money in Chicago, and the Juke Joint was going to (hopefully) provide them financial stability and consistent income, even Stack and Mary were left to immortality, but they weren’t free. They have to constantly be on the move and avoid the sun whilst living by a specific set of rules to avoid a burning fate. Their souls are still trapped in those bodies, they haven’t been freed to enter the afterlife like Annie was.