In Richard Lawson‘s 4.10 Vanity Fair review, he calls Ryan Coogler‘s Sinners “a vampire movie, one that has tense fun with all the old rules — garlic, wooden stakes, needing an invitation to enter a building — but uses them in service of a sad, harrowing evocation of history.”

A second Lawson quote reads, “One could look at the two sides of Sinners — Black entrepreneurs, artists, and revelers versus predacious white fiends — and see an obvious intent. That is certainly a foundational tenet of the film’s thinking.”

Lawson is describing some kind of wicked, anguished social situation in the Mississippi Delta of the early 1930s, but seems reluctant to just spit it out. I guess “the film’s thinking” will be clear enough when I catch Sinners next week.

Variety‘s Owen Gleiberman: “Vampire metaphors are almost always erotic, but despite the rather steamy atmosphere of Sinners (at the juke joint, there’s a whole lotta hookin’ up goin’ on), that’s not what it means here. The vampires are presented as extensions of the racist white culture that wants to stop the party.”

From Peter Bradshaw‘s 4.10 Guardian review:

And “in its forthright way, Sinners is a riff on the idea of blues as a kind of music that is avidly consumed by its producers’ enemies. As Delroy Lindo’s character says: ‘White folks like the blues just fine…just not the people who make it.'”

Lawson again:

There’s no discernible difference between digital and celluloid these days. Not to my eyes, at least. But Coogler sure knows his varying film formats and aspect ratios! And he’s a big believer in 2.76:1.

April 11, 2025by Jeff WellsNo Comments