POVofMe

**SPOILER ALERT**

Just in time for Easter, Ryan Coogler delivers to us Sinners, a movie set in Mississippi in 1932. This movie is beyond amazing. I feel like I've said that so much since seeing it last night. I keep having new revelations every time I talk through my thoughts, so let me dive in with as much as I can articulate at the moment, shall we?

From the beginning of the film, we learn that some people possess a gift of music that is known to conjure up evil. I can't recall what they called these people, but the movie does show native groups, including Native Americans and tribes somewhere in Africa.

Upon researching this, I found an article by Pavielle The Purpose Church from 2023 titled Exposing Deception Pt 2: The Supernatural Power in Music. It immediately jumped out to me that they point out Samuel 16:23 which discusses that "an evil spirit was tormenting Saul, but when David played his lyre...King Saul was able to rest and relax and experience relief from the torment because the evil spirit would leave." Is this perhaps where Sammy (Preacher Boy)--played by Miles Caton--gets his name? Is this what he ultimately does in his career??

Then we're introduced to Smoke and Stack--played by Michael B. Jordan. They're clearly known to be some bad ass dudes. Nobody wants to cross them. People are afraid of them and/or respect them. As the movie goes on, we get to better understand them individually and see their duality.

Something I didn't initially peep is how Smoke wore blue and Stack wore red. I already know red can signify evil (which made it interesting that this was the only color available for their sign, as well). When I googled "meaning behind blue," I got that it "generally symboliz[es] calmness, peace, and trust[.]"

We learn they left for Chicago--possibly hoping for a better life or getting away from the troubles at home. Stack used to be beaten by their father--which I picked up on even when they pick up Sammy and ask him how his dad is treating him. Smoke and Stack feel they can start over by moving back home with loads of money after working for Al Capone; they had been gone for 7 years.

Both Smoke and Stack have love interests. Smoke is in love with Annie, a black woman who might be from Louisiana or at least has roots from there. Possibly she's a Voodoo Priestess ? We're introduced to her selling medicine to children. We learn that her and Smoke lost a baby.

Stack had some kind of entanglement with a white woman, Mary, who it seems he's been dodging all of these years. (So many characters with Biblical names...) Mary's mom used to take care of the twins--which I'm still pondering on because Mary said she nursed them, which is odd for a white woman in those times. But this also gives this kind of savior story, now that I think about it. It is clear that because of Mary's mom, she's considered family amongst the sharecroppers/non-white community there.

We also meet Grace and her husband and their daughter--a Chinese family who owns stores in this black community (sound familiar?). We're introduced to Cornbread, who has a pregnant wife, and to Pearline, who's married but flirting with Sammy.

We constantly see Sammy attracted to sinners. He seems to be more attracted to Stack than Smoke, and his lusting for Pearline--a married singer who's always seen out wandering like she's single. (It's interesting how we see her pain and death highlighted when she's a vampire at the climax of the movie.) I don't know why, but she gives me Shug from-The-Color-Purple vibes lol.

It ultimately ends being a LONG night. Sammy's dad warned him that morning: If he kept playing with the devil, he just might bring him home--and that he does.

We meet Remmick appearing to fall from the sky, burning in the sun. He goes to a random house and let's them know he is running from Native Americans. I can't remember what he called them exactly, but we see the Klansman garb inside the house. The racial slur resonates with these bigots, who--despite this man burning in the sun in front of them--believe his sap story and let him in. When the Native Americans show up to potentially save them, the wife's hatred and belief of this burning white man makes her turn them away. In a beautiful fashion, the Native American man prays that God be with her, and they get out of there before the sun goes down.

Now my daughter wanted to understand how the Native Americans knew Remmick was a vampire. She really wanted Remmick's backstory. I felt it was essentially the same way Annie sensed the vampires were evil. Their 3rd eye can see clearly, if you will. Also, the element of the Native Americans and Chinese family show to me that this--the evil the movie is spotlighting--isn't just black and white.

Racial hate and greed for gold--money--ultimately get the white couple turned.

Later that evening at the juke joint, it is ultimately a white woman, money, and greed that bring evil upon everyone there.

Sammy's music lures the vampires to the juke joint. His music is that conduit for spirits, and we see what I think is the dopest scene in the movie: Sammy singing and future musicians and everyone's ancestors and lineage dancing throughout the juke joint. Eventually, the juke joint walls burn down surrounding them by fire while the vampires watch in thirst.

Despite Smoke turning them away and ordering Cornbread not to let them in, Mary offers Stack to go get him some money from these folks--who Annie has openly expressed give her the heebie-jeebies.

I know Dr. Umar loved seeing this LOL

Mind you, Mary making this offer is happening simultaneously while Smoke is being honorable and telling Sammy the truth about what happened with him and Stack's dad. I think it was here where Smoke mentions their dad was evil.

Later, we learn the guitar Sammy is playing belonged to his evil uncle. And there's clearly something about this guitar because in the after-credits scene in 1992, Stack and Mary are longing to hear Sammy play this mysteriously restored guitar.

We constantly see money as the root of evil. Cornbread is trying to do right by his wife, but she's willing to be dishonored/disrespected if he can make money. Smoke and Stack are just throwing money around. However, Smoke is negotiating and being a businessman. He's even imparting financial literacy on a young girl he pays to watch his truck. Meanwhile, Stack is just flaunting cash. He offers to pay Delta Slim $40/night plus all the beer he can drink to play at their juke joint. That's the equivalent of somewhere around $864.67 - $933.72 today.

Delta Slim is an interesting character. He's a self-proclaimed sinner, but he also tries to do right by people. He's an alcoholic I'm guessing behind the pain he's endured in his life. He puts that pain in his music. At the same time, money lures him in, too, along with this 'coincidentally' Irish beer from the North side of Chicago. But he ultimately sacrifices himself to save Sammy and the others.

The scene of Slim being devoured by the vampires is interesting, and I feel the way he succumbs is strategic, but I can't put words to why just yet. Maybe it was him holding his arms out, like Jesus being crucified...

The Irish beer being from the North Side of Chicago means something to me as a Chicagoan. The North Side is the white side of the city. We already have three white vampires killing everyone. Remmick is Irish, so it's almost like even Smoke and Stack lured in this evil by bringing the devil home with them...

Let's look at these evils that wipe out this group of black--and a couple of brown--people:

-White people--who claim they're saving them and giving them this freer, immortal life

-A white woman--who claims she's so in love with this black man and black people--in part because her granddad was 1/2 black so it's like she feels she's black too ? How often have white women been the cause of pain and death to black people?

-Money--"The root of all evil"

-Liquor--and a foreign liquor at that

How does this parallel with our lives--black lives--in America?

I'm still trying to understand what made Grace invite the vampires in...

My daughter asked "Why vampires?" Vampires were my favorite monsters as a kid. It's something about their attractiveness and ability to lure their victims to their death. Also, their ability to turn others and make more vampires--who can also lure and make more vampires.

Back to the duality of the twins: Smoke is honorable. (I use that adjective a lot because I feel it more strongly as the movie carries on.) Stack is trouble. I think I missed this, but I feel like Stack may have killed their dad (or maybe he was telling Sammy the truth). Either way, he was the trouble-causer and Smoke just loved him dearly and always had his back. This was an AMAZING performance by Michael B. Jordan. AMAZING. Like the look on his face when Mary killed Stack... The pain Michael showed that he was feeling. It was just like I would imagine that as an identical twin, Smoke would literally be feeling Stack's pain. Just amazing...

Then how the twins died: Smoke being an honorable man of his word. Protecting their property and land. Avenging the deaths of his twin, or his woman, and of all those people. Single-handedly slaughtering the Klan. And being able to reunite with his love and their son. While Stack is still trapped in the evil their father imparted on him. A vampire. Soul trapped forever with the evil woman who brought him down. Living forever, but never able to even see the sun.

There's something to Stack having that evil guitar in 1992 after having lied about its origin in 1932. Like even with his twin brother wanting so badly to save him from his suffering, he couldn't. But I was happy to see that he loved his brother so much, he honored his promise to let Sammy live out his life. Is this perhaps showing us that Stack wasn't all bad? There was good in there; he just had to work harder than Smoke to realize it.

Then there's the fact that this evil had to be invited in. I don't have all the words around it just yet, but maybe it's that simple. We have to be weary of what we're inviting into out lives--into our homes.

I think the holiness of Sammy's father gave him a lineage that ultimately saved his soul. He took it for granted almost. He wanted the thrill of being a sinner, not a good ol' preacher's boy from Mississippi. I think his gift and that experience probably made him a better musician. He also could see through the difference in guitars how he could choose good or evil--kind of what Smoke was talking to him about upstairs that night. (He could just play music in the church.)

I'm currently training as a YTT, and this made me think of Patanjali: 'Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional'--or a choice...something like that.

So that's all I got for now. If you read this entire thing: THANK YOU! I can't wait to see this movie again to catch more. Also, I'm looking forward to other thought-provoking takes on the film. I had to get this out there because the two I'd seen so far seemed to have missed so much for the culture...

The answer to why Grace invited the vampires in…

Yall, idk when I’ll move on. There’s SO much to see with this film

My first review didn’t focus enough on Annie or the way that guitar kept Sammie safe. I was also looking out for other things I’d seen in reviews or heard in podcasts…like the lack of reflections in the first post credits scene and the Irish history Remmick shared. Also, the history of the Blues.