Ryan Coolger’s Sinners Might Just Be One of the Best Movies of the Decade So Far

Credit: Image Courtesy Proximity Media

By Quinn Kinsella

Sinners is a modern masterpiece. At its heart, Sinners is a love letter to the blues, and the transformative power of music. Written and directed by Ryan Coogler and starring an ensemble cast led by Michael B. Jordan playing twins, Sinners melds genre and style, creating something wholly new and unique. It is a film made to be seen on the biggest screen possible. Shot with IMAX and Ultra Panavision 70 film, Coogler’s fifth feature film is a spectacle, and the cinematic event of the year.

Michael B. Jordan gives not only the best performance of his career thus far, he gives his two best. Playing the dual role of the Smokestack twins, Jordan creates two distinct and fully realised men with layered histories. The twins are matched in their complexity by their love interests, played by Wunmi Mosaku and Hailee Steinfeld. Although the costume department did an excellent job at differentiating the brothers with wardrobe, Jordan separates the hot-headed Stack and the pragmatic Smoke with body language and minute eccentricities only noticeable on a rewatch. Actors playing dual roles has notoriously been a feat of filmmaking and an extremely hard cinematic trick to believably pull off. In the case of Sinners, Coogler worked extensively with the visual effects (VFX) team using new technology to perfect the Smokestack twins’ appearance. James Alexander, the producer of VFX, along with his team, created a wearable rig that they nicknamed the “halo.” The halo consisted of twelve cameras surrounding Jordan as he performed each role with a body double of his character’s brother. The VFX team would then composite all of Jordan’s performance, including minute mannerisms, onto the body double to create the final product. The dual role of the Smokestack twins was a physically demanding one for Jordan, but his dedication and hard-work makes this his best role to date. Sinners marks the fifth collaboration of Coogler and Jordan. 

The cinematography is the most impressive achievement of this movie. Shot on 70mm IMAX film and IMAX cameras, director of photography, Autumn Durald Arkapaw, had the overwhelming job of capturing the Mississippi Delta in all its vastly stunning beauty while also showcasing the abrasive vulgarity of race relations in the deep south in the 1930s. Sinners makes history by having the first female cinematographer to shoot on IMAX film. Coogler recognizes the impact a returning team has on a film's success; Arkapaw and Coogler previously collaborated on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Similar in size and scope to Christopher Nolan’s films (who is thanked in the credits), Arkapaw’s direction of  photography uses large format film to reach new heights. For those lucky enough to catch Sinners on 70mm IMAX, there are some sequences that change aspect ratio from 2:76:21 Ultra Panavision 70 to 1:41:1, the IMAX ratio. The camerawork on display throughout the entirety of Sinners makes for a thrilling ride and will have audiences asking “How did they pull that off?” There is a one-take in particular that showcases the evolution and history of music and it is one of the most astoundingly beautiful scenes in recent film. It is a sequence that has had the internet buzzing for weeks now and will surely be a scene young filmmakers in a decade cite as their inspiration for pursuing a career in film. This scene is made even more incredible when learned that Arkapaw shot this with a 65 pound IMAX camera on a steadicam, making it a physical feat as well as a technically complex one.

For a film that uses music as narratively complex as Sinners does, a composer was needed that understood the immense undertaking that was creating a reverential but experimental love letter to the blues. Oscar-winning composer Ludwig Göransson pens some of his most evocative and moving compositions to date for his long-time collaborator and friend Ryan Coogler. Göransson and Coogler go way back. They first met in school, sharing a dorm room as freshmen at the University of Southern California, where Coogler studied film and Göransson studied music. They have since collaborated on every Coogler film since then, including his USC short film, “Locks.” The marriage of sound and visuals in Sinners is nothing short of beautiful. Ludwig Göransson has proven himself time and time again as a dedicated musician who honors the roots of the music he composes and enlists some of the best artists in their fields to create a vibrant sonic environment that perfectly matches the tone of the films he composes for. For instance, on his Oscar-winning score for Black Panther, Göransson traveled to Senegal and toured with musician Baaba Maal to grasp the full scope of Africa’s rich history of music. The soundtrack included Maal and musicians he met on his travels, creating a layered soundscape for the film and a score that won him his first of two Oscars. Göransson uses that same technique of research and collaboration to conjure a textured score that illustrates the legacy and impact blues music continues to have. 

Sinners is an immensely important movie for the film industry. Ryan Coogler has proven himself as a heavyweight filmmaker, grossing an estimated $2.4 billion at the international box office, making him one of the highest-grossing filmmakers of his generation. He continues to be undefeated, with Sinners securing the best opening weekend for an original movie so far this decade, grossing over $48 million. Sinners only saw a 6% box office decrease in its second weekend, making for the lowest drop since Jame Cameron’s Avatar. The current state of film suffers from countless remakes, sequels and reinterpretations of intellectual properties (IP). Original stories and the creative minds that seek to bring them to life are more prevalent than ever, but studio executives wince at screenplays that don’t have a number in their title or the subtitle “Based on Characters by . . .” Hopefully, Sinners will mark a change of heart for industry heads, giving them the confidence to invest in original stories such as this one. Coogler’s fifth feature film is so full of heart and passion that it oozes out in every line, and every frame. Coogler’s conviction of voice and narrative makes for the most commanding, and watchable film of 2025. A crowd-pleaser as well as an awards contender in nearly every category, Sinners will make its way onto top 10 lists of this year and possibly the decade. 

Movies such as this one are monumental experiences. They are events, where you bring as many friends to the theater with you, and leave you talking about the movie days after you saw it; making it the cinematic zeitgeist of the moment. Much how Barbie and Oppenheimer were cinematic events in the summer of 2023, Sinners is a similar cultural movement. Everyone is talking about it. Coogler simply has the sauce. He knows just how to direct a feature that puts audiences in theaters. Black Panther was a movement. It was not just a movie, it got people talking. It was an experience, an empowering one for people. Very few directors have the eye for making something singular and special while also appealing to a mass audience. Speilberg is one of these rare artists, combining heart, spectacle and a complete understanding of their craft that results in not only a monetarily profitable piece of art, but also spiritually relevant one. With films such as E.T. and Jurassic Park, Speilberg was able to capture a generation’s attention and Coogler does the same in 2025. It also helps that all of Coogler’s protagonists have a strong-willed nature that makes them utterly watchable. From Oscar Grant in Fruitvale Station to Adonis Creed in Creed and T’Challa in Black Panther, Coogler’s protagonists embody a conviction of goodness or lack thereof that make them so widely relatable and grounded even when the settings they inhabit are anything but. 

Coogler hits the bullseye every single time. Whether it's his debut feature Fruitvale Station or a continuation of the Rocky series with Creed, he knows how to make a hit. With the impressive feat of Black Panther and its sequel, Coogler earned the trust of the studio system. That trust gave him the freedom to shoot his original script Sinners, which is proving to be a massive success critically and financially. Next up for Coogler is an X-Files project, currently in the works. He has been developing this reworking of the classic 90s show for a while now and is eager to enter that universe. He will also direct Black Panther 3, making him one of a small number of filmmakers to direct three consecutive films in the MCU. He is a passionate artist, and that passion shines through all his work. He is a loyal collaborator and knows the importance of a returning crew. Coogler is going to be one of the defining voices of the 21st century of cinema.