Sinners Review

Sinners Review

Sinners was one of my most anticipated movies of 2025 and so far it’s one of the most successful movies of the 2025 in terms of box office and reviews. I saw the film yesterday, what did I think about it? Was it any good? Let’s talk about it!

The Good

This is a movie that I love that exists. This is a big budget original movie from Ryan Coogler (Creed & Black Panther) and we don’t get a lot of original movies with a budget. There’s no shortage of original movies coming out, once award seasons start we get a lot of original best picture nominees. Those are all small budget movies, there’s not a lot of big budget original movies. That’s sort of been part of the conversation about the frustrations with Hollywood not delivering as many high profile original movies. Sinners is an example of why we need more original movies and I’m glad that it’s killing it at the box office. This movie’s opening weekend was $48 million, the biggest original movie opening since Us in 2019. It has a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics and audiences are loving this movie. I hope this movie’s success shows Hollywood that we want more original movies. Ryan Coogler crafted something so special and so unique that it’s worth seeing on the big screen. He’s pulling a bunch of familiar things together whether that’s gangster, music, and vampires, and social commentary. We haven’t gotten a gangster musical vampire film with social commentary before. It’s this weird mix of a bunch of ingredients that come together to make something truly original and special. It’s ambitious with a lot of what it’s doing and only a top tier filmmaker like Ryan Coogler can pull it off. There’s a version of this movie that could have been a mess, but it wasn’t because Coogler’s vision was so strong. He knew what he wanted to do and he accomplished it so well that it truly feels original. 

What I find that works so interesting about this movie is how it’s able to be this vampire story that does get bloody in the third act but also has social commentary and something to say. This movie has some similarities to Jordan Peele’s films. There’s always this horrifying aspect to it but there’s something he’s commenting on in the movie. It uses horror as a way to communicate anti-racism and a message. This movie very much uses vampires and music as a way to communicate that. In interviews Ryan Coogler talked about the inspiration for the movie of his uncle. His uncle grew up in Mississippi playing bluegrass music and he learned that it was the most inspirational music in America as it brought communities and cultures together. That idea is present in this movie. The music brings out the vampires and causes the vampire carnage to take place. There’s a scene halfway through this movie that communicates that idea in a very ambitious way. If you’ve seen the movie you know exactly what I’m talking about but it communicates the message of the movie. You see how music is something that brings people together while being a vampire movie. The people playing the music are African American so it’s also commenting on racism, very subtly. It’s not heavy handed with the messaging and lecturing the audience, it’s there but the message is communicated through story. 

The character that’s the main focus point of this idea is Sami aka Pastor Boy. He’s this character that’s established to be very into music and has a passion for it. The way they use his character provides so much emotional weight to the movie. The scene that I mentioned involves his character singing, really showing how music can bring people together. Another memorable scene in the movie is early on when he’s playing the guitar in a car with Michael B. Jordan’s character. His face just lights up as he's playing. They bring that scene around in the third act and it means one thing at the beginning but something totally different by the end of it. I just love it when you have those scenes that you interpret differently at different points in the movie. I haven’t seen this actor in anything besides this movie. I hope he starts to get more work. I saw in an interview that he wants to play Miles Morales in the MCU. Let’s do it, let’s give him his big break into Hollywood with comic book movies. Without saying too much, the mid-credit scene of the movie ties into Paster Boy and it’s a fantastic mid-credit scene that is must watch. It’s just a great epilogue to end this movie on with the themes and ideas it's exploring. 

When it comes to this movie you have to talk about the cast and everybody here is pretty fantastic and delivers these great performances. In the lead you have Michael B. Jordan playing twins, he’s being dual roles in the movie. This is the best that I’ve seen him. He’s able to bring a movie star swagger that makes him very fun and charismatic. There’s several points in the movie where he needs to be dramatic and emotional and he’s 100% able to pull it off. He’s having to be both charismatic and emotional while playing two different characters that kind of have different personalities. I saw in an interview with Jordan where he talked about filming these dual roles and they used this special technology to help it and they used CGI in parts too. The other one to talk about here is Hailee Steinfeld as a romantic partner in the movie. She’s only 28 years old but has established herself as one of the top talents working today. She’s doing a whole bunch of different things. She’s having to play this very complicated and thirsty character that has so many emotions and layers to her. This isn’t a spoiler because it’s shown in the trailer but she turns into a vampire and the transition from innocent woman to killer vampire is so smooth and Steinfeld’s performance is able to do so much. It’s the type of movie where all the characters are great. Even the side characters have something about them that stands out. There’s a personality trait that they have or something about their appearance stands out. Of the side characters, Delroy Lindo was great because he’s able to play this wise character that has this warmth about him while also being funny. Everybody kind of has that, everybody has a relatable aspect about them that makes the ensemble of characters work really well. 

Speaking of things that work really well, this movie is constantly building tension and this sense of dread. The movie kind of marketed itself as this vampire action movie, that’s not what this is. The vampire stuff is introduced early on but the carnage isn’t until the third act. But in that third act it just builds tension more and more. The characters are put into situations where they don’t know who's a vampire and who’s not. You’re on the edge of your seat knowing that anybody could die at any moment. The movie changes its genre with every act. It starts as a racism story in this community then it has this musical aspect to it in the middle act then moves to a vampire film in the third act. I very much appreciated that about the movie. The audience knows that vampires are coming, we know that at any moment something bad could happen. When white people start showing up at the party you know something could happen. I think knowing where the movie goes and that it is a vampire film builds this tension because you don’t know when the carnage is going to start. When you do get the carnage there’s more tension because you’re worried about everybody’s lives. 

Finally, the movie is able to have a nice sense of humor to it. It’s not an all out comedy that has multiple jokes a minute. But there’s just enough jokes in there that make you chuckle or put a smile on your face. My theater laughed out loud multiple times in the movie. The one that got the biggest reaction out of my theater was when Michael B. Jordan’s character was listening to people…do it. Just his facial expression and what he says made me laugh. 

The Bad

This is a very small thing that I haven’t heard many people talk about. At different points in the movie, I found the audio hard to hear. Especially earlier in the movie there were times where characters would have conversations and I would miss some of it because the audio wasn’t quite right. I don’t know if that’s just me. I haven’t heard anybody else’s saying that but it was noticeable in the first half of the movie. 

Also, I do wish we got more vampire action in the movie. I don’t mind that it was saved for the third act, I think that helps the movie. But I do wish in the third act we got more vampire action and more carnage candy. When we get it, it’s very cool and awesome. Since it was so awesome I want more of the awesome thing. I also don’t know if having more action would have benefited the movie as a whole. I guess just for selfish reasons I wanted more vampire action in here. 

Final Thoughts: Sinners is just as good as I’d hoped it would be. Every positive review you’re hearing about this movie is 100% true. This movie perfectly blends together racism, music appreciation, humor, vampires, social commentary, and so much more all into one original movie. If you’re one of the people complaining about the lack of original movies in Hollywood, go support Sinners. This movie is fantastic and I hope at the Oscars it does well.  

The Score: 9.3/10 (A)