Sinners

Sinners (2025)

98% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 296 reviews)

Runtime: 137 spectacular minutes

Directed by: Ryan Coogler

Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Miles Caton, Wunmi Mosaku, Hailee Steinfeld, Jack O’Connell

From: Warner Bros.

So, I saw Sinners in 70mm IMAX.

My cinephile street cred just went up, especially considering there are only EIGHT cinemas in the United States which are presenting the movie this way. One happened to be the AutoNation IMAX Theater in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; it is attached to the city’s Museum of Discovery and Science. To pay the bills, they show Hollywood films alongside those IMAX documentaries. Viewing the movie on an 80 by 60 foot screen (24 by 18 meters) where some moments fill the entire screen: a transcendent experience. I was gone all day Tuesday to make this special journey to the Miami area.

I’ll explain why the format is not the reason I give this a rare 5-star rating. Some of the movies I’ve given that rating to I don’t feel that way about anymore-new reviews should be done for those in the future. The screening drew a large crowd; many were Black but several different races were present. Thankfully, rather than exhibiting any bad, distracting behavior, they augmented the experience: yelling during some scary moments and laughing during the rare humorous moment. Most even stuck through all the end credits. That’s why I stuck around to see the brief scene after the end credits; it was nice although not essential. The mid-credits scene, on the other hand… I hope you all at least saw that, as it was essential.

Michael B. Jordan as criminal twins returning to their small Mississippi town in 1932 to open a “juke joint” (a Black establishment in the American South that are informal and typically offered gambling & music) is the premise. Personally, I found it shame that some of the marketing I stumbled across the Internet presented what the classic horror monster was when the trailers did not make that reveal. It would have been even better if I the viewer learned along w/ the characters what the threat was.

Plenty of time was spent w/ the main characters before they met the threat. Some reviewers did not enjoy this aspect; I respectfully disagree. Besides being fascinated with this world and becoming enveloped in 1932 Mississippi between the setting, the stellar score, the blues music throughout, and the rich characterizations, I was on-board by the time the mayhem began. The movie had some obvious themes but the presentation wasn’t heavy-handed or insufferable. In any genre that is a problem, but especially so in modern horror. What a masterpiece Ryan Coogler created.

Sinners was bold; there are several overtly sexual moments, a few scenes totally out of left-field that were pulled off successfully, and presented a tired movie monster in a fresh way that was relevant for the movie’s themes. Michael B. Jordan was tremendous in the dual roles, although everyone in the cast deserves high praise. What a revelation Miles Caton was, both as an actor and a musician. Delroy Lindo had the film’s funniest character but he was typically serious and Delta Slim was a great character. Even performers I was not familiar with (such as Wunmi Mosaku) stood out. Would people be APPALLED by the admission this is the first movie I’d ever seen Hailee Steinfeld in? This was a mistake on my part; she was stellar in Sinners.

If more modern Hollywood movies even began to approach the craft, the care, the detail-for example, even the costuming in the film was high in quality-I wouldn’t carp so loudly about modern moviemaking. THIS is the type of product I want more of from the big studios instead of braindead disposable nonsense. I have to compliment Warner Bros. and yes, even their CEO, Voldemort. For all the penny-pinching that’s insulted their legacy creations, in 2025 they’ve at least released different original films. While The Alto Knights and Mickey 17 have received a mixed reception at best from viewers and nerds like us, Sinners has already been an unexpected smash hit even the common moviegoer rates highly and in a few months is a Paul Thomas Anderson film.

Yesterday was a more expensive day than expected-I won’t drone on about the other activities I did in Miami and the suburbs. Not everything went to plan down there but I was blessed to have seen what stands a decent chance to be my movie of 2025 in the best manner possible-a luxury most people won’t have. This is also what I want from modern horror.