Genre-bending 'Sinners' is already one of 2025’s best films

The words of Linda Martell — the first commercially successful Black female country artist — sum up the ethos of Beyoncé’s Grammy-winning album Cowboy Carter: “Genres are a funny little concept, aren’t they?”

- By JANUAR JUNIOR AGUJA

While Beyoncé’s eighth album, released in 2024, is predominantly a country record, it’s infused with other genres such as pop, blues, R&B, and even electronica.

A year later, Martell’s statement would take a cinematic form through director Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” —a genre-defying blockbuster that resists being pinned down to a single category. Some call it a Western epic, others say it’s horror. Some argue it’s a comedy, while a few even classify it as a musical, much to the chagrin of the genre’s critics.

Whatever genre it fits into, both Beyoncé and Coogler offer unapologetically Black stories that trace their roots through music, and how that underscores much of today’s pop culture.

Set throughout one night in 1932, Coogler’s two-and-a-half hour film stars frequent collaborator Michael B, Jordan as twins Smoke and Stack Moore. The brothers return to their Mississippi hometown from Chicago to open a juke joint (a bar owned and operated by African Americans).

They reunite with their cousin Sammie (Miles Caton), a preacher’s son who’s discouraged from pursuing music due to its “sinful nature,” and with their respective estranged wives Annie (Wunmi Mosaku) and Mary (Hailee Steinfeld), the latter of whom is white-passing.

They also assemble a crew: their childhood friend Cornbread (Omar Miller) becomes the joint’s bouncer; Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo) is the pianist; Sammie’s love interest Pearline (Jayme Lawson) as its singer; and a Chinese couple Grace and Bo Chow (Li Jun Li and Yao) as their supplier.