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By Jess Jones.
Sinners (2025, dir. Ryan Coogler). Arguably the biggest film of 2025. Not only did it get Michael B. Jordan the Best Actor win at the Academy Awards, but Coogler was also able to acquire Best Original Screenplay, and as expected, Ludwig Goransson’s insane score got its win without doubts.
The film was received with a lot of praise, dubbed the ‘best film of 2025’ by both critics and the audience, as well as one of the best horror films of the last two decades.
It opens with an animation sequence and a narration from Wunmi Mosaku, who plays Annie, a spiritual practitioner and love interest of Smoke, speaking in character about the power of music. She says that it can be healing so long as it’s in the hands of the right people, but it can attract ‘demons’ who want to steal it away from the people who can create it.
We are then introduced to Sammie (Miles Caton), who is the cousin of the two former mob members, twins nicknamed ‘Smoke’ and ‘Stack’ (both played by Michael B. Jordan), who have returned to town to open a juke joint. Sammie is a musician, hoping to make it big singing blues and playing his guitar. He is met with pushback from his father, a preacher who wants his son to follow in his footsteps.
The antagonist is a man named Remmick (Jack O’Connell), who we initially think is a victim of an attack, as he runs distressed towards a house in the middle of nowhere. Remmick claims he is being stalked by Native Americans, but a later interaction between the owner of the house and a Native American man makes us feel suspicious of the situation.
While the characters experience much debate as to what their antagonist could be, they eventually draw the conclusion to them being Vampires. However, the only person with enough knowledge on them is Annie. She is the only one to understand the events of the night and must try and navigate how the remaining characters can save themselves from the threat.
It invites a complex view of the villain, Remmick. He explains his reasoning for his actions to Sammie and other characters throughout, how he misses his own connection to Irish culture, and the consequence of losing your culture through colonisation. He wishes to get it back, but in the process wants to steal Sammie’s talent and the history behind his style of music and expression of emotion.
Personal rating: 5 stars. The visuals in some parts can only be described as beautiful, Autumn Durald Arkanpaw, the cinematographer, being awarded by The Academy for her talent. A particular scene was able to bring a visual representation of the evolution of music. ‘I Lied to You’, a song performed by Miles Caton, mixed multiple genres into one track. It was a song that did not leave my own playlist for many months after its release.
Sinners is Ryan Coogler’s best film, and a great collaboration with Michael B. Jordan, an actor that has appeared in several of Coogler’s creations, including Creed, where he played the main character, and Black Panther. It shows a different version of vampires to what is usually seen, using them as stand-ins for the force of cultural appropriation and forced alignment in aspects such as religion, a running theme throughout.
If you haven’t watched Sinners yet, I should ask you where you have been. Instead, I will only say that you are truly missing out, and the praise it received for all of last year was more than justified.
