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Sinners – Film Review

Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, Miles Caton, Jack O’Connell, Wunmi Mosaku, Jayme Lawson, Omar Benson Miller, Li Jun Li, Delroy Lindo

Director: Ryan Coogler

Synopsis: Looking to leave their troubled lives behind them, twin brothers look to start a news business in their hometown. However, they soon discover that a sinister presence is waiting to welcome them back…

Review: Ever since Ryan Coogler made his directorial debut with the harrowing Fruitvale Station, his career has only gone from strength to strength. A fantastic re-invention of the Rocky franchise and leaving his mark on not one, but two Marvel Cinematic Universe films. The first of which became the first MCU film to win Academy Awards, and the latter was made in the most unimaginably difficult circumstances following the tragic passing of Chadwick Boseman. Throughout Coogler’s journey to becoming a household name, Michael B. Jordan has been with him every step of the way. Their fifth collaboration takes them both into uncharted territory, a pulsating edge-of-your-seat descent into the supernatural world of horror.

Deep in the Jim Crow south of the United States, twin brothers Smoke and Stack (Jordan) have returned home to their home town of Mississippi after working as prohibition gangsters in Chicago for a certain Al Capone. Upon their return, they set about acquiring a property and turning it into a juke joint, while simultaneously seeking to drum up interest among the town’s residents ahead of the opening night. With the opening night in full swing, the drinks flowing and the blues music ringing out, it soon becomes clear that there is an ominous and foreboding presence terrorising certain members of the community. Over the course of one night, what started as a party becomes a desperate and bloody fight for survival against this menacing threat.

Now, depending on what marketing material you might have seen, you may or may not be aware of the exact nature of this supernatural threat. So, for the benefit of those who may not know, the nature of the evil threat at the centre of this shall remain a mystery. He may have worked within the confines of the well-oiled MCU machine for his last two films, but there was never any doubt that Coogler stamped his authority over those two films with deeply personal and powerful themes that resonated with audiences worldwide. A delve into the world of the supernatural, and this mysterious presence that is terrorising this town, is also very well-trodden. However, an effective combination of richly developed characters, some truly soulful blues music and an impeccably well-shot and designed film that hooks its teeth into you from the outset and never lets up. Coogler’s screenplay is patient, bides its time to build up these characters, establish the key relationships, and what makes each character tick. You come for the supernatural element, but Coogler once again brings layers and richly explored themes to his story, ahead of a very tense and enthralling showdown at the brothers’ juke joint, where the blood flows in plentiful supply.

Through his collaborative partnership with Coogler, Jordan has portrayed characters ranging from the tragic to the motivated to one of the MCU’s most fleshed-out and ruthless villains. In a year where we have already seen an actor play two different roles, or another actor playing cloned versions of himself, Jordan takes the crown for the most effective use of one actor to play numerous characters. The differences are subtle, with Smoke being more refined and calmer than the brash Stack, yet both retain an intimidating presence. Cross them at your peril. The rest of the ensemble are all sublime in their roles too, from Stack’s ex-girlfriend Mary (Steinfeld), Smoke’s former lover Annie (Wunsu) with whom he shares a painful and tragic past, and Delta Slim (Lindo) a musician with a penchant for drinking who brings a surprising amount of humour.

However, aside from the twins, the centrepiece of this riveting story is Miles Caton’s Sammie Moore, a local preacher’s son, and the twins’ cousin. A fantastically gifted musician and singer, though his father warns him about the temptation of playing music is akin to “dancing with the devil”, with the power to conjure spirits. Sure enough, such is Sammie’s power and fantastic talent, the presence lures the evil presence to the party, led by the sinister Remick (O’Connell). Yet, Sammie remains undeterred and lets his passion for the music shine through in his performances of several songs before the epic showdown at the brothers’ juke joint. It is an incredibly confident and assured performance, all the more impressive considering it marks his acting debut. You would be wise to remember the name.

It would be easy for Coogler to establish this as a supernatural battle of good vs evil, but weaving the music and the celebration of the impact that music had on the culture of the time is a critical aspect of the story that unfolds across the 147-minute runtime. Aside from Caton’s incredible vocal performances, regular Coogler collaborator Ludwig Göransson once again delivers a vibrant and memorable score heavily inspired by the Blues music of the period and his personal connection to the genre, in the shape of his blues guitarist father. The production design by Hannah Bleachler and Ruth E. Carter’s costumes expertly transports us to the time period, captured in all their glory by Autumn Durald Arkapaw’s fantastic cinematography, which demands to be seen in IMAX.

At a time when Hollywood is grappling with several threats, not least of which being the risk to originality and creativity, Sinners is a reminder of the kind of brilliance that can be brought to the table when singular filmmakers like Coogler are given the full backing to realise their vision. When the results are this spectacular and a complete feast for the eyes and the soul, it is enough to convince you to go dancing with the devil every day of the week.

An exhilarating and blood-spattered supernatural descent into horror that ups the stakes with thematic examination of US history, soulfully stirring music and a cast firing on all cylinders. Ryan Coogler has firmly established himself as a true modern visionary director.

Hellboy – Film Review

Cast: David Harbour, Milla Jovovich, Ian McShane, Sasha Lane, Daniel Dae Kim, Thomas Haden Church

Director: Neil Marshall

Synopsis: When an Ancient evil sorceress seeks to establish a dark and terrible dominion over humanity, the task of stopping her falls to the one and only Hellboy…

Review: Reboots are all the rage in Hollywood these days, but when any effort is made to reboot a franchise, it can be a very tricky minefield to negotiate. If done right, there’s potential to win an army of new fans to a franchise. On the other hand, when done badly, it serves as a painful reminder to why sometimes a reboot should never have come to fruition, and instead should have stayed in (development) hell where it belongs.

Having been previously brought to the screen on two occasions by Guillermo del Toro, the opportunity for the visionary director to complete his trilogy never materialised. As a result, we now have a new iteration of the half man, half demon, with David Harbour stepping into the horns, vacated by Ron Perlman. We find ourselves in present day with the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (BPRD) under the stewardship of Professor Bruttenholm (McShane) who, along with Hellboy find themselves in the middle of a supernatural war. The villainous Blood Queen (Jovovich) seeks to subject humanity to the darkness under her tyrannical rule, and of course, the task of stepping up and taking her down, falls to our Demon friend.

“Not even a gun this big can save this shitshow!”

By far and away, the saving (of sorts) grace of this film is David Harbour’s take on Hellboy. He tries his best, through all his red make-up, to be charismatic and humorous. It’s just a shame then than that the film surrounding him is just a complete catastrophe. From the get go, the screenplay is shambolic, with seemingly no thought whatsoever given to structuring it in a coherent manner. We’re introduced to this supernatural conflict, via some exposition of the quite vulgar variety. From there, the plot just zips along from scene to scene with no time to actually work out what is even happening and why. Furthermore, for the overwhelming majority of the dialogue, the delivery is completely atrocious. The writers seemed to have been playing a game of how many times can we say the word “fuck”, with no nuance, or any particular reason why. It becomes very tiresome very quickly, and this is all within the first act of the film!

Harbour’s performance is the best of a very bad bunch, which is frustrating because there are actors here who have proven themselves to be better than this diabolical material, but when the screenplay is this atrocious, that doesn’t help matters. For instance, Ian McShane has proven himself capable in franchises like John Wick, here you can just tell how much he is phoning it in, likewise for Milla Jovovich’s villain who’s as generic as they come, and there’s a monstrous villain with a Liverpudlian accent. It all just makes no sense whatsoever and defies logic how all of it got approved in the first place. Sasha Lane is another talented actor who has proven her talents in other projects. There is intrigue to her character, but when the execution is just so extremely sloppy across the board and there’s next to no development to these characters, you don’t give a salty shit whether they live or die.

There’s various different ways that violence in films can be accomplished, you can go for the aesthetic route (see the works of Quentin Tarantino) or you could do what the filmmakers here do and go horror film-esque gore, with copious amounts of blood and limbs getting severed left, right and centre. They seemingly making the decision to see just how many people they can kill in two hours and in the most gruesome fashions. It’s just gratuitous and serves no purpose to the advancement of the story, and neither does some of the abysmal CGI. Extremely choppy editing, and the action scenes are migraine inducing, which given Neil Marshall’s portfolio, including two masterfully directed episodes of Game of Thrones, leaves so much to be desired.

Everything about this film should serve as a strong reminder studios that if you’re going to take on a reboot, make sure that you do it right, because otherwise the world is going to be filled with more grotesque abominations like this. For fans of this character, there’s always del Toro’s films to fall back on, and based on this monstrosity, it’s a hell of shame that he was never given the chance to complete his trilogy.

A dreadful, incoherent screenplay combined with ridiculously excessive violence, ensures that this reboot is a mess of satanic proportions that belongs in the deepest depths of cinematic Hell.