Ryan Coogler’s artful action-horror offers superb performances, rich storytelling, historical detail – and a jook joint scene that tears the roof off It’s a symptom of the modern entertainment landscape that movies are now either commercially successful or critically acclaimed, but rarely both. Look over the highest-grossing films of 2025 and it’s a familiar roll call of sequels and spin-offs; look over the critics’ favourites and they are mostly fine movies that not enough people watched – all hoping for a boost from awards season. But Sinners ticked both boxes: it was a smash hit (the seventh highest grossing picture in the US and virtually the only original movie in the top 20), and it was a critical triumph (97% on Rotten Tomatoes, 84% on Metacritic). And most importantly of all, Sinners was a true original, combining action-horror excitement with deep, rich, personal storytelling. There’s nothing more gratifying than seeing a film-maker swing for the fences and actually knock it out of the park; against expectations, 39-year-old Ryan Coogler did just that. What’s more, Sinners contains what’s surely one of the most transcendently cinematic moments of the year: the scene when blues singer Preacher Boy (Miles Caton) performs his new song I Lied to You for a rowdy Mississippi jook joint, which is powerful enough to pierce “the veil between life and death, the past and the future”. As the song builds, reality breaks down. African tribal musicians, Chinese opera performers, modern-day turntablists, P-Funk-style electric guitarists: all join the swirling revelry. Coogler literally tears the roof off the joint: it catches fire from all this energy and we’re in another realm of space and time. Give the film an Oscar just for this! Continue reading...