Sinners

⭐7/10

It's definitely a bit of a hot take having this movie rated so low. I certainly liked it, but I think that the expectations I'd built up for this one hurt the overall experience. I thought it was good! But I'm pretty confused as to where all this praise as an all time great is coming from. 

So this is a movie about... well it's a movie about a thousand things and I think that's my main issue with it. It's about music, African mythology, vampires, race, gangsters, freedom... It has a million themes that only seem somewhat related, and it never really came together for me. It was a mishmash of genres, and I'm not really sure if this movie was trying to say something, but it was either trying to say too much, but to me, really said nothing at all. 

There is a scene in the middle that is being celebrated, and I agree that the scene is amazing. You will know it when you see it. But I also didn't really get what the scene meant within the context of the movie. Maybe it was just supposed to be a cool audio-visual thing, and if that's the case then great, but I always got the sense that the movie was trying to be deeper than it was. 

But that's a lot of negative. This movie is as stylish as anything. It looks great, sounds great, has some great performances, and is great as a period piece. It brought the 1930s American south to life in a way I can't really remember being done in the past. I also thought it was perfectly spooky, though I think I could have done without all the squelchy blood squirts. I also loved the villains and thought they were well portrayed, though can they be evil if they like all the same music I do? 

So in the end I thought this movie was cool and exciting. But I kinda have a feeling that it will age similarly to Black Panther, where the style and cultural influence made it a best picture nominee, but years later I think we all agree it was mostly a normal action movie. Good moments for sure, but it's been a week and I haven't thought about this movie once.