Film Threat Review: Sinners

Sammie’s cousins are Smoke and Stack, both played by Michael B. Jordan. The pair left their abusive parents to join the military and then the mob in Chicago. After “earning” enough money, Smoke and Stack returned home, bought a farmhouse, and renovated it into a bar.

Feeling the rush to open that night, Smoke and Stack divide the work and split up with Sammie, who goes with Stack to recruit musicians. While at the train station, Stack runs into his former love, Mary (Hailee Steinfeld), and on the other side of town, Smoke visits his love, Ruthie (Andrene Ward-Hammond).

By some miracle, the bar is opened, the customers flow in like the booze, and blues is on tap as if inviting a special spirit connecting the Black American music from generations from the past to the present…this present. As the night presents itself as a success, Sammie, Smoke, Stack, and their guests are approached by a sinister presence wanting to join the frivolity.

Ryan Coogler’s Sinners is the first top movie to come out of 2025, and it’s only April. Just know that if you thought Coogler was a master storyteller before, Sinners only shows how much he has evolved over his career and how he approaches a genre he has yet to tackle. There’s a big reveal that I’m about to spoil, so if you want to go in fresh. Stop reading here and see Sinners…I’ll wait.