Sinners (2025): A Movie Review

A still from my favorite scene in the movie Sinners (2025).

Last night after much anticipation I watched the highly rated movie Sinners written and directed by Michael Coogler (Black Panther (2018), Fruitvale Station (2013).

What I really liked about the movie.

Jumping right into it, I was enthralled first off by the set design. I loved the setting, the costumes were amazing, colors and patterns were great. Hailee Steinfeld's pink satin dress was my favorite and of course Stack and Smoke's fits were phenomenal. I really like movies set in the South centering Black community back in the day Django (2012) is my all time favorite movie). I also have an affinity to Gangster movie's and its not very often you see a Black gangster- American Gangster (2007) is another all time favorite of mine. To have the main characters come back home from working with Capone was a detail I absolutely loved.

I enjoyed the vampire twist, the obvious choice to make him the villain White in that setting made obvious sense. The racist dialog and character choices did a good job highlighting the continued presence of racism in the world. We recently saw Alex O'Keefe the writer of Bear get discriminated against on a train from NYC to Connecticut just two weeks ago.

The acting was great, the whole cast really put their best foot forward in this movie. I was ecstatic to see the legendary Delroy Lindo! What a treat to have him on the screen again, I still quote his famous line "stop eating my sesame cake!" from the movie Congo (1995). He has done so many iconic roles since then and I hope to see more of him. Jayme Lawson who played Pearline in the movie was superb! Wow! From the first scene we see her in at the train station she just gave so much authority and sass it brought me life! Her singing and dancing in the Juke Joint later in the movie was incredible as well- her passion and presence oozed off screen, I really want to see more of her! Asian sensation! I want more Asians in the South! I loved that they were great business owners and badasses themselves.

Lastly, I really admire the continued relationship between the writer and director of the movie, Michael Coogler, and his star/muse Michael B. Jordan. They have worked on 5 movies so far together, including the great Black Panther (2018) and I can't wait to see more of their work together.

Where the movie fell short for me.

Right after the movie ended, I couldn't help think what happened to the Asian daughter her mother fought so valiantly to protect. In fact there were a few instances where things were left open ended. I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that both Hailee and Jayme Lawson's characters were both married and neither of their husband's came looking for their wives that whole night? Seemed odd to me, I would think they would send a search party back then in the South. I loved how free the ladies were but we all know that even woman or man, those things have consequences. I felt there were many details that were given to us for the sake of filling the page but the effort to make sure all loose ends were tied was lacking. In more technical terms. the principle of Chekhov's gun wasn't practiced well enough here.

Furthermore, I felt like the relationships between the characters was surface level. Even the memories Smoke was having at the end of the movie about everyone who died didn't go past that one night they were getting the bar ready? Seems pretty juvenile to me especially since he was expecting a baby with his lover and had a whole childhood with Stake. Perhaps some memories of them running in the field together or learning to use a gun, something to make it go deeper and make me feel the utter loss it actually was.

Personally, when movies have good character stories, through lines and everything adds up in the end, it makes it an epic film that stays in people's minds for a very long time and have us coming back to watch it again and again. This was a one and done type of movie entertainment for me.

Surely, I haven't ruled you out Michael Coogler, you're still fantastic and I can't wait to see what else you come up with in your career.

Until the next one!

-The Lovely Cinephile