The Hot Button by David Poland

The Hot Button by David Poland

THB #695: Sinners

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David Poland
Apr 18, 2025
∙ Paid

Now I get it.

The reason Warner Bros. couldn’t/wouldn’t find a clear voice for Sinners is that it is a beautiful mess.

The IMAX really is beautiful.

I completely respect the ambitions that Ryan Coogler brings to the film… all of them… which sometimes make sense, sometimes make none, and often conflict with one another.

I’m going to get into some detail here, but I don’t consider this next paragraph any spoiler as the experience of the movie is not about story structure at all.

It’s basically 3 movies. First, it’s a movie about black twin brothers in 1932 who have empowered themselves as gangsters of a sort in the big city and come back to their hometown, some kind of heat behind them, with the idea of making a killing with a quickly launched juke joint. Second, it’s a movie about the overnight build out of the juke and the opening night of joint and all the relationships and passions of the community around the brothers. Then, it becomes a movie about white vampires attacking the juke …

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