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Notes -
I watched Sinners last night.
It’s a flick about 1930’s vampires set in the American bayou. It’s a black flick. It’s about blackness, being black, black music, black stuff. Very black.
I love black cinema. From Life with Eddie Murphy to exploitation like Sweet Sweetback’s to Don’t Be a Menace to Friday I dunno whatever, even Scary Movie maybe. I’ve seen several dozen of them. They’re all ‘ black ‘ and pretty watchable for anyone. Plus anyone with even a hint of social awareness can watch them just fine.
The movie I’d most compare this to (it’s where my mind went for some reason) is Idlewild - basically OutKast (the musical group) in Atlanta in the 30’s … also very black. I love this movie.
The black characters in all these films are … black. They seem like normal people, just black. Rich black. Poor black. Dumb black. Smart black. Teacher black. Funny black.
I was born in Poland so I e always watched (not enough) a bunch of Polish cinema. Same idea. The Polish characters are Polish characters in a myriad of ways and if you’re Polish then you get it, and if you’re not, you can still be entertained and understand.
Well with Sinners - and even before really over the last few years … it just seems like the blackness is performative. It’s not that I don’t believe Michael B Jordan isn’t black, or that the writer or director don’t know about being black, it’s that I think now they’re starting to act as a fictional black narrative.
Being a 1930’s black man is no longer believable on screen. It was believable in Idlewild. Friday is believable - it’s caricature of course, but believable! I believed Dr Dre … I don’t believe Kendrick Lamar. I believed The Wire … I don’t believe (basically any ‘ black ‘ show I’ve tried to get into lately). I haven’t watched the show Atlanta but I’ve heard good things but mostly from white people, and mostly the writer and actor falls into this land of unbelievability as well.
I think there’s this black (black American) malaise that I can’t describe or catch onto over the last decade or so that makes black entertainers over perform their blackness in a subtle way.
I’ve always felt black Americans are Americans, just black. More recently I feel like they’re trying to be in some way more so.
If I were a pessimist I would say this is part of the ‘ we were kings ‘ meme that has been overloaded into the cultural psyche - if I were an optimist, I’d say it’s a culture trying to find itself and strive for a cohesive core to begin to become something other than ‘ black Americans ‘.
I’m usually optimistic in all respects but I have a lot of negativity towards, in respect to this post, black entertainment. Or at black entertainment that attempts to be mainstream.
I really enjoyed the first 30-40 minutes of this film. I went in without seeing any promotional materials for it, so I really didn't know what to expect. I was really excited about a gritty story set during the Prohibition, with the characters returning after making it big in the seedy underworld. The costumes were gorgeous, as was the soundtrack/music, cinematography and setting. I thought I was going to see probably the best movie of the year.
Then the horror slop started. I don't just dislike horror, I don't see the point. It's either jumpscares or unending tension. It boggles my mind why anyone would enjoy this genre. Sinners, however, is neither; it's not a comedic horror, like Evil Dead, and it's not really scary either. It just is horror because that's what it's labeled as. Yeah the scene with the Irish song (Rocky Road to Dublin?) has a great, catchy song, but it really undermines the horror element of it (just makes the whole thing really goofy). Also, people talked in other comments about suspension of disbelief, which this scene bulldozes, but what about the in-story characters? Imagine vampires surrounding you, a supernatural being that you thought didn't exist 10 minutes ago, and then, they just start dancing and singing. Goofy.
And then, actually, even the set-up I thought I was getting, the conflicts between Prohibition gangsters, their old lovers, sharecroppers, Chinese shopowners, the KKK, the young and old musicians, even that doesn't make sense. Like, how would a nightclub make sense financially in rural Mississippi (?), specifically for black people which were mostly sharecroppers and low-wage laborers? And the Twins should know this, since they worked and/or were in close-enough proximity in this sector. Hell, they even remark that their funds will run out pretty soon. Why not open up in or closer to a (major) city and have the characters from their past move there with the Twins or finding them there? But by this point, it's like an entirely different movie.
I see that it was directed by Ryan Coogler, who also directed and wrote Black Panther, the most overhyped Marvel movie so far. It's just as formulaic and average as any Marvel film (except Captain America 3 and 4, the Avengers 1 3 and 4 and Guardians of the Galaxy 1). I get that it was the first Black-led superhero movie (except for Blade), just as Wonder Woman was the first female-led superhero movie (except for Elektra and Catwoman), so it makes sense why it made so much money and publicity. I don't get why everyone pretends they are actually any good (or better than the avereage).
I was very engrossed by Sinners. It pulled me in with it's setting, from pretty much the start. I liked the actors, the music is phenomenal. I have a soft spot for American period dramas. Which is why I am disappointed the film took the turns that it did. Sure, maybe it's my fault for not doing any research before seeing it, but that would've meant I wouldn't have seen it at all. And I would've missed the amazing first parts of it.
Genuinely I recommend people just watch Sinners it until the 30-40 minute mark, shut it off and imagine the rest. Can't be worse than how the movie develops from there.
I've been planning on eventually writing an effortpost here about the horror genre and some of its problems. So I'm glad to see there may be some interest in that here.
The TL;DR is that the "modern horror film" as such has a lot of issues, as you correctly point out, but I think that works that have horror elements are quite fascinating (David Lynch films are a good example).
I'm interested. I'm in the same boat where the horror genre holds zero interest in me but films with horror elements can be good. Se7en is a good example of a film with horror elements that is not a horror movie, for me. (When I've mentioned something like this some people go "well, would you be interested in psychological horror instead of supernatural horror, then?", but it's not that, either, it's something else.)
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