Writer/director Ryan Coogler has previously awed audiences with Black Panther and Creed. For Sinners, he’s reunited with longtime collaborator Michael B. Jordan, who plays twins in the critically heralded vampire flick.
Set in Clarksdale, Mississippi circa 1932, where the blues was born, Sinners stars Jordan as the SmokeStack Twins, two debonair rogues who, after years up north in Chicago, are fixing to start a juke joint in their hometown. Helping them along the way is a smooth-talking bluesman (Delroy Lindo), the no-nonsense local grocer (Li Jun Li), old friends (Omar Miller), former lovers (Wunmi Mosaku and Hailee Steinfeld), a sultry singer (Jayme Lawson), and their young cousin Sammie (Miles Caton), who aspires to be a professional musician. But Sammie’s soulful music attracts more than revelers — it also attracts a prowling vampire (Jack O’Connell), determined to turn their juke joint into an all-you-can-eat buffet.
‘Sinners’ review: Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan deliver a vampire movie for the ages
This mix of sensational song numbers and vampire-led violence means Sinners is a film that might have some calling it a horror musical. But do Coogler and his cast agree? Entertainment Editor Kristy Puchko sat down with Coogler and his Sinners ensemble to discuss the matter, and to explore how making a “genre-fluid” film so physically demanding worked for the cast.
Sinners is now in theaters.