Sinners is the type of movie where nearly every scene could be considered a standout moment on a technical, writing, or performance level. For me, there’s two moments—one utterly sincere and raunchy, the other delightfully meta—that speak to one of the film’s core themes.
In the first, burgeoning blues guitarist Sammie (Miles Caton) is getting intimate with singer Pealine (Jayme Lawson) and proceeds to get on his knees. He’s about to employ the advice his older cousin Stack (Michael B. Jordan) gave to him about pleasuring a woman earlier in the film, and just as Pearline’s about to politely decline, Sammie looks up at her and says: “You’re beautiful, and I want to taste it.” He’s clearly taken with her, and says this with the earnestness of someone who believes in what he’s saying.
As for the second, it comes after Stack’s been turned into a vampire and flees the juke joint after being hit with pickled joint juice by Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), Smoke’s (also Jordan) estranged wife. “This ain’t a haint. It’s a vampire,” she says, her statement punctuated by a 4-note sting of guitar, drums, and vocals.
Both moments reflect Sinners‘ refusal to be mysterious. When Annie outright calls Stack a vampire and lists off their weaknesses, it’s refreshing that her declaration isn’t met with any real skepticism or mockery. Think about how many horror movies featuring a vampire, zombie, or werewolf seem actively afraid of ever saying the common terms aloud, as if uttering them can take away their potency. But in the real world, we the audience have always known this is where things were headed. Once she says the word and the music kicks in, director-writer Ryan Coogler basically says “Yeah, we know why you’re here, now get ready.” He isn’t introducing any new spin on the material, but being up front about that and just changing the perspective on who vampire stories get to be about is new in and of itself.
Across his filmography, Coogler has proven to be great at scenes where a character lets their guard down and speaks from the heart, often in scenes relating to grief. In Creed, it’s when Adonis tells Rocky he has to keep fighting to prove his worth to himself and everyone watching. The original Black Panther has the hug between T’Challa and his late father in the Ancestral Plane, later followed by one between Killmonger and his own father. Wakanda Forever provides this through Ramonda lamenting to her people about what she thought was the death of her entire family by that point—then again at the very end when Shuri sits at the beach and lets herself finally mourn her brother.
These moments of vulnerability are spread all over Sinners, as most of the characters are grieving for losses recent and old. Both Smoke and Stack drop their walls when allowed to be with their respective love interests; Stack gets bitten and turned by his old flame Mary (Hailee Steinfeld) because he’d previously opened up to her about wishing for the life they could’ve had. The film’s handful of sex scenes come when the characters are at their most vulnerable and honest, trying to hold onto a moment they may never get again—they’re running away from incoming danger (of their own making or just by being Black in the 1930s), or have another life to return to, so why not indulge in some debauchery for tonight?
Even Remmick, the film’s chief vampire, is surprisingly open throughout the film. When he stumbles upon the abode of Bert and Joan, he pleads for their help, claiming to be on the run from Choctaw that’ll soon be on his trail. Turns out, this wasn’t a ploy to escape the sun, and he’s mostly truthful throughout the rest of the film. Yes, he wants to put the juke joint patrons under his thrall as he did the two Klansmen, but he’s not lying when he talks about being entranced by Sammie’s music, and he told the humans about the local Klan planning to attack in the morning when he could’ve kept that to himself.
His entire deal is honesty through invitation: he, Bert, and Joan lure Mary and turn her through their Irish music and pulling on the recent loss of her mother. To the survivors, he offers safety from aging and racism if he can use Sammie’s musical gifts to summon the spirits of the family he still mourns. The other vampires are connected to him mentally, allowing for an wide net of intimacy that also sets up one of the film’s best dirty jokes.
Sinners posits that grief and honesty can be two sides of the same coin. Before making a last stand against the Klansmen, Smoke lets himself remember the friends who died over the course of the night, then gets rid of Annie’s charm protecting him from danger so when he gets shot, he’ll join his late wife and daughter in the afterlife. Sammie’s decision to leave Clarksdale and become a musician is him standing by his convictions and mourning Pearline, Annie, and everyone else who effectively died for him. After wowing them all with his music—a showstopper scene that lets him be his most real self and showcase his talents to an appreciative audience—renouncing music would erase the history of what happened that night.
In Sinners‘ post-credits scene, we see a younger Sammie happily playing his guitar and singing “This Little Light of Mine,” allowing himself a moment of musical honesty in his father’s church, where he’s been previously begged to seek salvation. And its mid-credits scene sees an older Sammie in 1992 reuniting with Stack and Mary, who’ve remained vampires since the night in Clarksdale. After Sammie opens up about still being haunted by that night and loving it regardless, Stack shares a similar sentiment, calling it the last time he truly felt free. We’ve all heard the phrase “the truth will set you free” at some point in our lives, and it’s one Sinners and Coogler take to heart.
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