IonicBreezeMachine

Set in 1932 twin brothers Elijah "Smoke" Moore and Elias "Stack" Moore (both played by Michael B. Jordon) return to their hometown of Clarksville, Mississippi having acquired a large amount of funds from their time working for the syndicates in Chicago intent on opening a "Juke Joint" at an abandoned sawmill. With their musically inclined cousin Sammie "Preacher Boy" Moore (Miles Canton) set to play at their club despite his father, Reverend Jedidiah Moore (Saul Williams) disapproval, the three acquire additional talent, help, and resources for their big opening night rekindling both old friendships and old romances in the process. However, while the big opening night seems like a prelude to success, a shadow descends upon the occasion turning a night of care free celebration into a fight for survival against relentless evil.

Sinners is the latest film from writer director Ryan Coogler who parlayed his critical success in the indie hit Furitvale Station to blockbuster success with the likes of Creed and the two Black Panther films. Development began on the then untitled film in 2024 when a bidding war erupted between Sony, Universal, and Warner Bros. For the film with Warner Bros. Eventually winning out. Coogler stated that his desire with the film was to create something personal as the impetus for the film came from his experiences growing up in Richmond, California where he'd walk over to his uncle's house who had a substantial collection of Blues records and would tell Ryan stories of how his time in Mississippi post-WW2 and the racial tensions that forced him to flee westward and serving as the foundation for what would eventually become Sinners. With a handsomely mounted production, a rich atmospheric soundtrack, and an engaging ensemble across the board Sinners makes for an entertaining good time that can be enjoyed on a genre level while also possessing a great deal of love and admiration for Blues music and the black contributions to the American arts that transcend decades and genres.

In terms of describing what Sinners is in the broadest terms, the best approximation I can think of is imagine if you took the period visuals, soundtrack incorporation, and quirky characterization of O Brother, Where Art Thou? And mixed it with the genre intensity and gear switching of From Dusk 'til Dawn and mix it with the musical energy of The Last Dragon (albeit minus the camp) and you might get something similar to Sinners. While the movie starts out already engaging with a heavy Southern Gothic atmosphere that creates an engaging world of Clarksville, Mississippi that exists in the shadow of Jim Crow, it fills that atmosphere with all manner of engaging characters ranging from Michael B. Jordan's engaging dual role as twins Elijah "Smoke" and Elias "Stack" Moore who run the gamut of allowing Jordan to play with suave swagger and colder more ruthless intensity in equal measure while also allowing for strong humanity in the respective romantic subplots with Hailee Steinfeld's Mary and Wunmi Mosaku's Annie both creating memorable multi-dimensioned love interests and characters in their own rights who could've made an engaging story on their own. Miles Caton is also very good as Smoke and Stack's musically inclined though innocent cousin who adds a good counterpoint to the rest of the more cynical characters with his dreams of playing blues at odds with his religious upbringing. A collection of characters this rich makes the first half of this film already an engaging sit (and I've barely talke about all of them such as Delroy Lindo's role as an alcoholic harmonica player that feels Best Supporting Actor worthy) and once it switches genres by the halfway point into a siege film you really feel invested in these characters.

But beyond the very engaging characters and story, Coogler also adds another layer as the soundtrack and music acts almost as a co-lead. Beneath the gritty crime drama and genre survival spectacle, Coogler creates a film that visually tells the story of not only Blues music but the black contribution to music both past and future with a standout sequence where Preacher Boy's blues balads intermix with African tribal chants, 60s and 70s rock, and even 80s to contemporary rap and hip-hop in an ambitious gamble of a sequence that could've gone wrong (such seen with similar experiments in Alex Cox's failed 1987 film Walker) but pays off as a strong usage of magic realism that emphasizes how much love and respect Coogler has for this music and it's one of only a handful of details which include not only the location of Clarksville, Mississippi (a town notable for its blues heritage including connections to Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson) and cameos by various black musical figures. In a way I was reminded a little of 2021's The Harder They Fall which tried to do this mixture of genre entertainment with musical energy, but unlike that film which had plenty of style, Sinners not only has the style but also the substance to put it to effective use.

I really enjoyed Sinners and not only is it one of my favorite films I've seen this year so far, but I can't wait to revisit it as I imagine there's plenty of details that I missed that I'll want to catch on a second go around.

Set at a lavish hotel in Cape Town, South Africa, United States President Danielle Sutton (Viola Davis) prepares to attend the G20 conference of global world leaders to address the issue of world hunger with proposed initiative spearheaded by Sutton. However, when disgruntled Australian Special Forces soldier turned terrorist Edward Rutledge (Anthony Starr) seizes control of the summit having infiltrated using a team of mercenaries posing as security, Rutledge takes the leaders hostage intent on using samples of their voices to create AI deepfakes to crash the value of global currencies and increase the value of his cryptocurrency. Having escaped the siege with a handful of other delegates and her lead Secret Service agent Manny (Ramon Rodriguez), Danielle must now tap into her long dormant military skills to save her family and the world.

G20 is a vehicle for producer and star Viola Davis. The film is yet another revisit to the formula popularized by Die Hard, that is "terrorists take over blank and only blank can stop them" and with its President protagonist has more than a few shades of prior ventures like Air Force One or White House Down. In comparison to this year's earlier Die Hard clone, Cleaner, G20 is much better structured and has a richer and more interesting premise, but an overly stoic delivery coupled with a very safe approach to the material makes G20 little more than an admittedly well made time killer.

When the film first starts crosscutting an action sequence introducing our villain with a sequence in which Danielle is managing a crisis that turns out to be her teenage daughter Serena (Marsai Martin) sneaking out to go partying, there's a very strange disconnect where the family side of this movie feels almost like a straight faced revisit to the 90s Disney movie First Kid. While (most of) the action in the film is perfectly fine, the movie has some very strange tangents that feel like they're supposed to be comedic in nature but are played with a similar level of stoicism to much of the cast. If you compare G20 to the other "Die Hard starring the President" features like Air Force One or White House Down, it doesn't have the endearingly hokey and sincere charm of the former nor does it have the over-the-top excess of the latter. Davis playing the character as having doubt and struggling with impostor syndrome due to her campaign's usage of her military service, it leaves the character feeling bored most of the time. Anthony Starr is the exception to the default for most of the cast and having been a fan of him since Banshee (before his more recognized Homelander) he's a lot of fun playing a mixture of Hans Gruber by way of a "mirror universe" version of Chris Hemsworth.

G20 is perfectly serviceable as a time killer, but if I'm ever in the mood for an "I can't believe it's not Die Hard" there've been plenty of prior ones that felt like they did more with the template. Anthony Starr is a fantastic villain (no surprise there) but the overly stoic delivery of everyone else just makes everything else feel drained of energy.

Elliot Kintner (Paul Rudd) and his daughter Ridley (Jenna Ortega) have had a schism develop in their relationship ever since the death of Elliot's wife and Ridley's mother with with both Elliot and Ridley throwing themselves completely into work and college respectively. Now serving as a VP to the pharmaceutical empire of the Leopold family, both Elliot and Ridley are pressured to spend the weekend at the Leopold estate in their wilderness preserve at the request of terminally ill patriarch Odell (Richard E. Grant) who will determine whether Elliot will be named his proxy. However an already tense situation is further complicated when Elliot accidentally hits a unicorn and inadvertantly discovers its blood has curative and restorative properties much to the delight of Odell, his wife Belinda (Tea Leoni), and their son Shepard (Will Poulter). However, the arrival of another unicorn turns this discovery into a fight for survival against both a mythical beast and unquenchable greed.

Death of a Unicorn comes to us from writer director Alex Scharfman in his feature debut having previously worked in various capacities as either a producer or production executive (most notably on The Witch). Released by A24 and with Ari Aster as a producer, Death of a Unicorn is slightly less bold with its unusual premise than you might expect and feels like it's more commercially minded (similar to A24's Y2K from last year), but still provides an entertaining and bloody good time.

Playing sort of like a mixture of an E. T.-esque "magic being" fable, Alien, Jurassic Park, and Knives Out, Death of a Unicorn provides ample opportunity for its talented cast to react to the absurdity of the premise with gusto. Both Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega have good chemistry together as an estranged father/daughter combo and they make solid straightmen to the excessive opulence and callousness of the Leopold family all of whom make a unique mark in how distinctly despicable they are. Will Poulter is effortlessly loathsome as a nepo baby who sees the discovery as a way to protect his unearned interests (as well as "other uses" he discovers for the unicorn) and Tea Leoni is put to good use as someone who presents a warm exterior that plays well in PR as a way of candy coating a more duplicitous nature. And last but not least is Richard E. Grant as Odell who starts off as a world weary billionaire giant who initially gives a hint of humanity by worrying about his legacy on the cusp of his death, only for that to completely go in reverse once he discovers the curatives and restorative powers before him.

In terms of delivering on the genre thrills, Death of a Unicorn plays itself largely straight without constantly winking to the audience or commenting on the ridiculousness of the situation (much like A24's Y2K did) and the fact they play the scares and kills relatively straight does work in letting the humor come from the situation more naturally than you might expect. Even though the movie's satire about the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry isn't particularly cutting or deep, it is put to good use to create some memorably despicable characters who are entertaining. The actual effects work on the titular Unicorns is admittedly a little spotty as they're largely rendered in CGI and they feel pretty weightless when on camera especially in the climax and while I would've appreciated more practical creature effects it worked well enough for what it wanted to do.

I actually rather liked Death of a Unicorn. While it doesn't go as all out as it could've with its premise and plays its satire largely towards easy targets, the humor and straightfaced playfulness of the premise, and the talented cast made for a fun experience.