Sinners

Report Card

Dirty Laundry – A: None. There are no examples of racial dirty laundry on display in this film.

BlackFace – A: None. There are no instances of white characters offensively pretending to be black in this film.

National GeoGRAPHIC – A: None. There are no scenes of gratuitous nudity.

Cosby Content – B: Some Characters. There are some examples of relative black success achieved within the confines and according to the rules of the white establishment. There are also examples of black success achieved on its own terms, beyond the bounds of the white establishment.

25-20s – B+: Several. You can take several white friends with you to see this movie. A handful of things will demand multilayered conversation, but the amount of explaining you will have to do is marginal and they will love the soundtrack.

Sinners is a cleverly made genre bender that spins a spellbinding yarn conjuring the spirit of Nat Turner and the rhetoric of Malcolm X. It makes no apologies for its stout, proud language as it depicts black self determination in the face of lethal racial hatred. Convincingly led by Michael B. Jordan in his mesmerizing turn as both SmokeStack twins, all the characters are committed to a life of dealing with the devil they know against the backdrop of an outsized sky consuming vast, whited cotton fields stretching to the horizon. The harvest is indeed plenteous, but the laborers are few—and the work is hard. And so for one night in the week the juke joint offers a foretaste of heaven; or at least a temporary reprieve from hell. Delroy Lindo delivers an Oscar nominated performance as a celebrated musician who tells a lynch story that explains the pain that births the blues. A music that conjures spirits past and future, tying it on a black continuum. A music deftly performed with on-screen conviction by real life musician Miles Caton.

What stands in sharp political relief in Ryan Coogler’s cinematic advance-lunge is that the leeches are white, preying on coveted blackness. And it’s the mockingbird killing “white woman” that lets the evil in. There are scenes that head nod to Rent and the Thriller video, and the church going crowd will come away shaking their heads in agreement, “The Devil knows scripture, too!” That this movie imagines a world wherein spiritual danger is more impactful than anything the Klan can muster catapults it to the must watch list for religious conservatives everywhere. The subtle, haunting genius of this movie though is that it gives white people choice—an opportunity to see the best of themselves and the worst of themselves and then choose to identify with the best: the girl and the vampire. The vampires just want to make things better, create unity, and usher in the beloved community, just like MLK. Progressive whites like my kids’ friends will see themselves in the vampire and feel good about themselves in this movie. It doesn’t poke them, it strokes them. Hence the raging popularity and full acceptance of this movie among all racial groups. We are all sinners, and this movie gives us hope that we can all be saved someday. By grace. And sunlight. And a perfectly placed piece of wood.