In Sinners, Honesty Leads to Freedom

Sinners is the type of movie where nearly every scene could be considered a standout moment on a technical, writing, or performance level. For me, there’s two moments—one utterly sincere and raunchy, the other delightfully meta—that speak to one of the film’s core themes. In the first, burgeoning blues guitarist Sammie (Miles Caton) is getting intimate with singer Pealine (Jayme Lawson) and proceeds to get on his knees. He’s about to employ the advice his older cousin Stack (Michael B. Jordan) gave to him about pleasuring a woman earlier in the film, and just as Pearline’s about to politely decline, Sammie looks up at her and says: “You’re beautiful, and I want to taste it.” He’s clearly taken with her, and says this with the earnestness of someone who believes in what he’s saying. As for the second, it comes after Stack’s been turned into a vampire and flees the juke joint after being hit with pickled joint juice by Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), Smoke’s (also Jordan) estranged wife. “This a ... Read full article.