Sinners

This year’s unexpected box office sleeper is that rare beast, a genre movie full of bold invention and surprise. In the early 1930s the Smokestack Twins (Michael B Jordan and Michael B Jordan) return to Mississippi and establish a new blues joint on the edge of town. Opening night is a great success, until a menacing trio of Irish musicians shows up to crash the party…

In his fast-rising career Ryan Coogler has made socials issues drama (Fruitvale Station), the Rocky spin-off Creed, and Black Panther, so perhaps it makes sense that Sinners is a historical drama, a horror thriller, and a blues musical, all at once. No matter the genre, Coogler combines dynamic filmmaking with a commitment to the emotional integrity of his characters. Because he cares about them, so do we. This is an audacious movie, and a seriously accomplished one.

Sinners is a big-screen exultation — a passionate, effusive praise song about life and love, including the love of movies. Set in Jim Crow Mississippi, it is a genre-defying, mind-bending fantasia overflowing with great performances, dancing vampires and a lot of ideas about love and history.

Manohla Dargis, New York Times