Sinners

Sinners is a tale of monsters, both supernatural and immorally human, that takes place in the early 1930s Jim Crow south. Identical twins Smoke and Stack (Michael B. Jordan), veterans of WWI, return to Mississippi from Chicago, where they’ve been working with the likes of Al Capone. Their dream is to open a juke joint in an abandoned warehouse, and they have the savings to get it done. They come to town and hire a crew of locals, including cooks, grocers, musicians, a bouncer. Their young cousin, Preacher Boy (Miles Caton) dreams of playing guitar and singing, and after hearing of his talent playing a famous guitar, they invite him to join their group.

Along the way, old romances are rekindled and examined, with Smoke’s estranged wife, Annie (Wunmi Mosaku) and Stack’s ex-girlfriend, Mary (Hailee Steinfeld), who are both amazing actors and wonderful to watch. Preacher Boy begins a romance with the beautiful, albeit married, young woman, Pearline (Jayme Lawson).

Things start off well, the joint is hopping and everyone is having a wonderful time. There is a beautiful scene with Preacher Boy singing and playing where the whole crowd is joyfully dancing, and the revelers are visited by musicians and dancers from both the future and the past.

It is a place for black folk, and they don’t want any trouble. Trouble arrives, of course, and must be dealt with. At least they had a few hours of fun.

We really liked this movie a lot. The music is phenomenal, the acting superb, the cinematography beautiful. Yeah, it’s a horror movie, but I loved that that aspect was such a small portion of the time and energy of the film. Highly recommended, we may need to go see it again before it leaves the theaters.

If movie theaters aren’t your jam, it’s now available for streaming, though it’s spendy ($20 to rent, $25 to buy, via Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime). I have read that it will be on HBO and available on DVD in July.