How Ryan Coogler structured ‘Sinners' like Metallica song

Ryan Coogler only makes personal movies. "Fruitvale Station" was set in his hometown of Oakland, California, and explored the last day of Oscar Grant. "Creed" was dreamed up for his father, who loved "Rocky" unabashedly. And "Black Panther" let him grapple with the idea of what it means to be African. In just four features, he'd established himself as one of the top filmmakers working today. It hardly mattered if it was based on a real-life incident, or part of the Marvel machine: Coogler made the movies his own and audiences followed.

- 

But one thing he hadn't yet done was a movie that came entirely from his own imagination.

"Sinners," which Warner Bros. releases in theatres nationwide this weekend, is just that: Coogler's first original film, blends elements of supernatural horror, gangster drama, romance, blues music and action across one eventful day in Clarksdale, Mississippi in, 1932 in which a community opens a juke joint and then has to defend it from a vampire army growing outside. It's something that needs to be seen to be believed, right down to Coogler's longtime collaborator Michael B. Jordan playing identical twins. And it's already a critical hit.