Sinners (2025) Review
by Jack Hanley of Kinophila and HanleyOnFilm.com
SINNERS (USA) Dir. Ryan Coogler
In SINNERS, Ryan Coogler steals away from fangs of IP to orchestrate a sumptuous (if not shaggy) plunge into southern gothic horror, where sin seeps through the floorboards like molasses and seduction calls through every note. Subverting the genre with operatic ambition, Coogler boldly subverts the traditional vampiric allegory in a radically unexpected and political flourish that leans more Marxferatu than Nosferatu- and about damn time.
Coolger’s vampires may not glitter, but they are the nouveau Glitterati- where the invitations to the new spaces of power can only be purchased with influence and beauty.
It’s all rendered with deft film-making, glorious cinematography, and a sumptuous soundtrack- a haunting dirge dressed in church whites, baptizing its audience in blood, sweat, and Black Southern transcendence.
While the players are all transcendent (extra pours for Miles Caton, Jack O’Connell, and the chronically underrated Delroy Lindo), make no mistake the music steals both souls and the show. Coogler seems transfixed by the horror of the American experience, and thus scores his polemic with the music of the oppressed, both new and old “American others” alike. Be it slide guitar or fiddle, colonial memory is fused to the strings.
Although the final act cannot ultimately fully rise to the promise of its earlier “monsters of metaphor”, make no mistake it is ONE HELL of ride. Be sure to stay through the credits for an unexpected coda that proves the best stroke of genius in this idea-rich gumbo.
I rather loved this film, and if this is — indeed — Coogler’s most personal meditation, and the grand metaphor of his twin protagonists reflects the power struggle of his own artistic crossroads, then of the “twin Cooglers”, I know which one I’m rooting for.
*** 1/2 out of *****
Jack Hanley is a Boulder-based film scholar, podcaster, and critic. He is a programmer with the Chicago Underground Film Festival and Boulder International Film Festival. He is one-half of Blindspotting: A Film Discovery Podcast and Flicker with Jack and Scott on YouTube. Find him at Kinophilia on Medium and at HanleyOnFilm.com