"Sinners" vampires, guns and music.

Ryan Coogler is one of today's most consistent filmmakers, and, along with others like Jordan Peele, is one of the main figures responsible for the best representations of Black culture on the scene today. Films like Black Panther and Creed proved that it was possible to deliver social criticism for the masses without falling into pretentiousness, embracing their African roots and blending them into the modern world.

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Sinners not only feels like an organic continuation of his filmography, but it's also one of the most interesting and entertaining films I've seen in a long time, using a seemingly familiar trope and taking it to unique heights.

Starring Michael B. Jordan, Jack O'Connell, and Hailey Stanfield, Sinners immerses us in 1930s America, as we follow a couple of twins who have returned to their hometown with the goal of opening a casino for their people, just as they've seen it in the big cities.

However, they will eventually discover that their town hides an evil that seeks to ruin their plans.

Like Robert Eggers' recently released Nosferatu, Sinners is more focused on being a faithful representation of everything vampires historically represented, rather than a deconstruction of the concept. And, although it features a brilliant display of digital and practical special effects, it also takes its time introducing its characters, their internal conflicts, and, in general, the rules that will govern this universe.

Coogler uses all of this to show us a brilliant allegory of racial segregation, ranging from the film's most obvious elements (like the almost omnipresent presence of the KKK) to more subtle ones, such as the figure of an Irish man as the main antagonist, or the brilliant performance of the beautiful Hailey Stanfield.

As if that weren't enough, Sinners features one of the brilliant sequences that, using surreal elements, cleverly blends music with the film's narrative, something that is very present from beginning to end and alone justifies giving the film a try.

It's nice to see the use of traditional norms when approaching vampires in any form of media (having to be "invited" into a house to enter, the sun and wooden stakes being capable of destroying them, etc.). And, overall, it's a brilliant film.

Score taken from my Letterboxd account.