Why Sinners?

The movie Sinners received a record-breaking 16 Oscar nominations. How did it do that?

Sinners. Even the movie title grabs you.

Sinners is a phenomenon. It garnered more Academy Award nominations (16) than any movie in history, as a vampire horror movie! How did an unlikely story premise dominate the Motion Picture Academy this year? It goes beyond the basics to be a truly memorable cinema experience.

Sinners does not scream Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, or Best 13 Other Things Too

Beyond epic performances, inspired directing and excellence in music, visuals and storytelling, Sinners starts with nobody, characters or viewers included, knowing they're in a supernatural horror film.

Michael B. Jordan is indeed that good.

Sinners Checks the Oscars Boxes

A pair of twins buy an old sawmill and plan to make it a juke joint. They're black, they have mysterious pasts, and they're trying to do this in the 1930s Mississippi Delta. The premise is already Oscar gold, full stop. Michael B. Jordan gives a dual performance of Smoke and Stack that's so good, you can tell each brother apart even if you weren't visually queued by Smoke always wearing blue and Stack red. The music, central to the plot, is also excellent, with an original soundtrack and an incredible scene of musicians through the ages appearing to jam in this rural early 20th-century dance club.

Then the vampires show up. Director Ryan Coogler adds more cultural weight by making them Irish, and implying through anecdotes that the head vampire is over two thousand years old. It's a "now for something completely different" that works so well it elevates Sinners even higher. But Coogler's direction adds the horror in a way only the greatest horror movies do.

Funny story, but I didn't expect my music to bring out vampires.

Sinners Hides Its Cards Until It Has You

The vampires don't show up until an hour into the movie. And the existing world and story are so fascinating that it almost makes you sad.

That's what great horror movies do. They start out as regular movies with regular people in regular situations. Nothing supernatural to see here. But when the supernatural shows up, it feels like the genuine, abnormal, unearthly horror it is. The characters in the movie go about their mundane lives, dealing with problems that might be dire but are everyday. Then the supernatural comes in, and the characters, along with the audience, now have to deal with a complication beyond the bounds of reality.

Irish vampires. Why does it always have to be Irish vampires?

Most horror movies don't do this, and aren't trying to. Everyone, including the characters by their nature, knows they're in a horror movie and that they're supposed to die. But great horror movies that stick with you (Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist, Alien, The Shining) start out with regular people in regular life. The movie could have gone on as a regular (if possibly boring) movie without the arrival of the horror.

Sinners does it one better. The characters, premise and story are so good, the music so amazing and the setting so captivating, that it could have stuck with that story with no vampires and STILL been great, still been nominated.

But it didn't stick with just that. It added horror in a way that enriched the already established themes, accentuated the existing characters and story, and thus catapulted Sinners beyond its already high station.

I'm getting too old for this sh*t.

I could keep writing about Sinners, praising the original period-appropriate music, extolling how amazing Jordan is in his dual role or calling out the tremendous accomplishments of Coogler the director. But the horror, much more than an extra touch, adds to an already rich movie and makes it unforgettable (and the Oscar's biggest darling in history).

Be sure to see Sinners, for the first time if you haven't yet, or again because it's worth it. Like and leave a comment with your thoughts, and be sure to subscribe for more weekly content!