2025, Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station) -- download
Ever wonder how the reader feels about reading your inner dialogue. Cough. And even, two versions of it?
Kent raved about the movie. With good reason.
...
Still never stubbed it.
And you never even wrote the post, and its like a month later.
...
Vampires and blues music. On the heat map of Toasty interests, vampires are probably in the dark orange and blues, in the hot yellow. I was somewhat into blues when I was a teen, even listening to recordings of Robert Johnson, and the tales of selling your soul at the crossroads for the ability to twang out a tune. It may or may not have been influenced by the 1986 Walter Hill (Supernova) movie, with Ralph Macchio, called Crossroads. Kind of surprised that Sinners didn't bring up the idea of deals with the devil at the crossroads, all things considered. I mean, a primary element of the movie is about the guitar player sinning.
But vampires, vampires have been my thing for a while now. Like the John Carpenter movie Vampires, this movie takes the classic creature of the night out of the Eastern European milieux and places it in the heart of Americana. And then Coogler takes the genre and mixes it into something else tactile and beautiful, if a little pedestrian as vampire movies go. As an example of the genre, its a lot of fun but no really new ground is broken, but as a movie, its tight and expansive and luxurious in nature.
Nice vague-booking there...
Identical twins Elijah "Smoke" Moore (Michael B Jordan, Fantastic Four) and Elias "Stack" Moore (Michael B Jordan, Chronicle) return home to Mississippi after being away for The War (I) and ending up in Chicago. They come home with a deadly reputation and a boatload of (stolen) cash, focused on opening up a roadhouse. It will be a Venn diagram of their likes: booze, music and food. Except the vampire being chased by Choctaw vampire hunters stumbles across their opening night.
Painfully too little of those Choctaw; they looked like they could have been a lot of in-world fun.
Much of the movie is meticulous setup. The characters are painstakingly (pun intended) presented to us, from the conflicting colour tones of the brothers, to the women they love, to the people they choose out of loyalty and history to help them realize their dream. Primary to that dream is music. And key to that music is their cousin Sammie (Miles Caton, feature debut), or Preacher Boy, son of a preacher who hates his son's devil born music. Obviously Sammie is the Robert Johnson of this movie, and perhaps the deal at his crossroads is to play for the two brothers, who are devils in their own right.
Once the vampires are on the scene, its just ... rote violent fun. Don't get me wrong, I loved it, its a cut above most of the vampire dreck out there. Don't get me wrong; there was a time when we would have put this movie on The Shelf. I prefer the ultra-violent vampire myself, the monster instead of the lover. But considering the absolutely lovely setup the movie had, especially the absolute transcendent scene where they depicted the music of Sammie, how it reaches out past the juke joint he is playing in, out to the ages, across time and space, is just .... wonderful. I wanted more of that in the movie, so when the vampires attack, I was almost.... let down?
Still, in my constant complaining about only being subjected to the "meh" of the cinematic world, I am so glad this came along. I love a movie that I like the more I think about it, the more I recall scenes.
And since I didn't get into all the characterization, let's harp on the cast. Jack O'Connell (Rogue Heroes) as the vampire leader Remmick, an Irish bastard with his own love for music. Hailee Steinfeld as Mary, Stack's ex, who is not as white as everyone thinks she is, and not as black as she wants to be, with all the challenges that statement holds. Wunmi Mosaku (Passenger) as Smoke's ex and a local witch doctor. Delroy Lindo (Sahara) as Delta Slim, legendary piano & harmonica player, and bitter drunk.
Kent's We Agree.
No comments:
Post a Comment