Stuck in a Moment: Sinners

“Sinners” (2025)
Starring Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, Miles Caton, Delroy Lindo
Written and directed by Ryan Coogler
Rated R for strong bloody violence, sexual content and language

I did not watch “Sinners” with a plan to write about it. I'd heard nothing but good things about the movie, so what would me saying, “Yeah, it's really good” add to the discussion? And if I didn't like it, well, OK, everybody's entitled to their opinion. It wouldn't be the first movie I felt was overrated.

However, I quickly found it living up to the hype – which is what made the element I did get stuck on all the more disappointing.

In case you're new to this series, aside from the bonus of getting a great U2 song playing in my head, Stuck in a Moment focuses on movies where one scene or aspect overshadows the rest of the film.

I'm not going to claim Ryan Coogler didn't write and direct an epic, genre-blending movie that gripped me for most of its nearly two-and-a-half-hour running time. Nor am I going to argue that folks shouldn't enjoy aspects of it, or that I somehow understand exactly what this story means to Black people and how it speaks to life experiences with which I, as a white guy, am wholly unfamiliar. I'm just saying why I'm not all in on this movie.

Jordan plays twin brothers Smoke and Stack, who return to their native Clarksdale, Mississippi, during the Great Depression to open a juke joint with the money they've ... acquired ... working in the Chicago underworld. If you've heard anything about this movie, there should be no spoiler warning required before saying their plans are interrupted by vampires. But what I'll be addressing from here on deals heavily in spoilers and my main issue with the movie.

While Jordan and Jordan, along with Steinfeld, are the big names and stars, this is an ensemble cast. One of the main focal points is Caton in his debut role as Preacherboy Sammie Moore, the son of a strict pastor who frowns on his son's musical ambitions. I figure the reverend would welcome Sammie leading songs for the congregation but not performing them in venues where the alcohol flows freely and morals are checked at the door.

Preacherboy is under the spell of his twin cousins as they prepare for opening night of their new venture, assembling a group of musicians and staff in a sequence that, frankly, reminds me a bit of Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi getting the band back together in “The Blues Brothers.” The effort grows to include Annie (Wunmi Mosaku, aka B-15 from “Loki”), a mystical medicine woman, outstanding cook and mother of Smoke's lost baby; Mary, the three-fourths-white, occasionally-requited-but-now-married-to-someone-else young love of Stack (Steinfeld); alcoholic blues man Delta Slim (Lindo, who could get a Best Supporting Actor nod); and an affable bouncer named Cornbread (Omar Miller).

The premise uniting the period drama focused on music and the supernatural subject matter is that some musicians are so talented they can transcend time and spiritual planes. As the juke joint gets rolling, Preacherboy displays his talent, connecting with Black musicians from the past and future, and consummates his flirtation with a married woman named Pearline (Jayme Lawson). This is no mistaken, fumbling encounter. He knew she was married when he invited her and when he went with her into the back room. But people disregarding marital vows, while not something I enjoy, is not the issue I took with this movie.

His music also attracts the attention of wandering vampire Remmick (Jack O'Connell), who turns a married couple – who also happen to be members of the Ku Klux Klan – undead like him and imparts his musical talents to them. They approach the juke joint, asking to come in and perform as a trio, understandably creeping out Cornbread and the twins, who decline.

Things start to happen quickly after that, with Mary, Stack and others to whom we've become attached being killed brutally only to return with fangs and glowing eyes. It sets up a tense face-off with more emotional stakes* than I expect from a lot of horror movies. Truly no one is safe, and I wasn't sure where it was going.

But there was a clue to at least one road they'd take.

Delta Slim makes a remark about how religion was forced on his people by those who enslaved them, but the music is theirs. I may not be the brightest light on the Christmas tree, but I am well aware and truly saddened that so much evil has been perpetrated in the world by people claiming to worship Jesus Christ and God His Father. And while I would argue Pastor Moore didn't answer his calling out of misguided loyalty to the people who oppressed him, I certainly understand Slim's perspective. After all, he delivers this line around the same time he recounts the brutal lynching of his friend.

Smoke and Stack don't seem to have much use for any laws and guidance but their own opinions, though their perspective is understandable too. And if “Sinners” was just the story of imperfect people who have struggled and suffered in an unjust world and now find themselves in a period horror movie, I probably wouldn't be writing about it.

But as Remmick closes in on Preacherboy, wanting to add his mystical musical talent to the vampire hive mind,** the young man falls back on the teaching he grew up with and starts saying the Lord's prayer. The vampire leader pauses, and I raised my hands in anticipation.

I knew this wasn't an Angel Studios release, but if we can get a pro-God message in an Arnold Schwarzenegger action movie, it can happen anywhere.

Sure, Preacherboy's father seems to wield religion like a cudgel, and the story of a hyper-conservative parent stifling their child's creativity because they fear it clashes with the values they've taught them is nothing new, in fiction or fact. But maybe, I thought, we were about to see that Preacherboy's faith and talent could co-exist, and he was reaching the true expression of the former, not something followed out of fear or obligation.

But no. Remmick starts saying the prayer with him, and then says it was forced upon his people by those who stole their land. A talisman Annie made for Smoke does offer him protection, and Preacherboy's prized guitar seems to have some vampire-hurting properties imparted by his own talent. But the word of God? Nada.

Smoke and a conveniently fast-rising sun dispatch the bloodsuckers and we get on with the dual endings.

In one, we return to the first scene, where a bloody and battered Preacherboy stumbles into his father's church. The reverend welcomes him back into the fold and urges him to drop the broken neck of his guitar, all that he has left of the instrument. In the other, Smoke uses intel the vampires offered while trying to convince him they weren't so bad to ambush a mob of Klansmen who arrive at the joint to murder as many people as they can.

I believe all human life is precious, but I'm not going to say I feel bad for the racist murderers as Smoke mows them down. The part that troubled me is when he pauses before being reunited with Annie and their baby in the afterlife to empty the clip of his Tommy gun into the wounded and maybe already dying grand dragon.

As for Preacherboy, he does not drop the guitar, still clutching it as he drives off into a future that culminates in him as a famous blues musician (played by Buddy Guy) 60 years later. I don't believe he had to give up his love of music to repent and serve God, nor do I think disobeying his father or committing adultery means everything that happened to him, her and their friends was a-OK. But it's not like hanging out with his criminal cousins was leading him down the best road even before the undead crashed the party.

In a mid-credits scene, Stack and Mary show up in 1992 and offer to make Preacherboy a vampire so he can go on living and playing. He turns them down, vampire Stack gives him a hug, and Sammie says that before that night fell back in 1932, it was the best day of his life. Stack agrees.

To recap: I do not claim to understand the cultural resonance many elements of this story have. I mean, racism is real, people have been treated inexcusably because of the color of their skin or other traits, and it should go without saying that it's wrong, and evil, but I'll say it anyway: It's wrong and evil. And yes, people claiming to be Christian have absolutely acted in ways at direct odds with the word of God, and that's not something to be glossed over.

It seems like a lot of movies, even those that invoke Hell, ignore the other side of the equation. Take “The Devil's Advocate” where Al Pacino's Satan has a law firm but the only reference to God is when the infernal counselor refers to Him as an absentee landlord. So all we had to save the day was Keanu Reeves who (spoiler alert) isn't even smart or strong enough to not cheat on Charlize Theron?

But “Sinners” makes clear that there are supernatural forces that can push back against the vampires: Smoke's talisman, Preacherboy's guitar. Both of these remedies, which I view as coming from nature and humans rather than anything divine, are shown to be more effective than the word of God.

Now, if Preacherboy didn't believe the words of the prayer he was saying, maybe there was no power in them, like when the Jewish Kitty Pryde tried to ward Dracula off with a crucifix in Uncanny X-Men #159. But the way I took it was a pretty explicit rejection of Christianity, not just the flawed, or even sacrilegious, ways some people practice it. I don't believe anyone can earn their way into Heaven – that's what grace is for – but Smoke gets a happy afterlife, because... he killed the right people? No God, but good music is transcendent?

Nobody is required to write, direct and act in films in such a way as to conform to my beliefs. Would I like it? Sure, but not because it's important to me to be right. Knowing Jesus Christ loves and forgives me in spite of my numerous faults and shortcomings is the most profound source of hope and peace I have ever known. I want others to have that too.

“Sinners” is an excellently made movie. The sexual content is unnecessarily graphic, but there's no nudity and they don't take it as far as they could have. The language is at times a bit much, but hardly shocking compared to some contemporary films. The acting is top notch. The characters are three-dimensional and relatable, even if you don't always like what they're doing. When people die, it's not for the thrill of creative kills; you feel their loss.

But even though Coogler crafted such an impressive film, the heart of it rings hollow to me. I can respect his talents and those of everyone involved, but I can't celebrate that portion of the message that says God is an unworthy human construct and what really matters is what we feel is right.

Or maybe I'm missing something. I started writing this right after watching the movie, without looking up other impressions. I hated the ending to “Fallen” until somebody explained it to me. Some of the promotional material has the words “We are all” before the title “Sinners.” Agreed. And there is a post-credit scene of Caton performing “This Little Light of Mine.” Is it just to showcase his talent? Or is there more I hadn't considered? I'm willing to listen.

* - Pun not really intended, but it's not like I won't own it.

** - Which actually does allow one of the vampires to speak Chinese.