lirazel | (no subject)

random sinners thoughts:

+ love letter to southern american music. we love to see it.

+ finally some recognition that the southern us has always been culturally and racially diverse--the black/white binary dominated and still dominates most thinking about race, but there have always been people who don't fit into either category. having chinese, choctaw and mixed-race people more accurately reflects the time and place than most stories with similar settings.

+ the dobro is one of my favorite instruments ever and i hope this movie inspires a million people to start playing it

+ finally a movie that's filmed in Real Locations and knows to use cgi for necessary effects and not for the whole world. the production designer should win every oscar. as should the costume designer.

+ The Scene was one of the best scenes i've seen in cinema. like. wow. yes. that's what movies are for.

+ wtf was up with using "wild mountain thyme" though that song is from the '50s????

+ honestly the irish picks were pretty low-hanging fruit and something more obscure would have been more interesting but “rocky road to dublin” is a banger of a song so i’ll let it pass

+ having the white trio play the world’s whitest version of a geeshie whiley song was a genius move (and that one! with those lyrics!)

+ so proud of michael b. jordan in my heart he'll always be vince all grown up

+ michael b. jordan and hailee steinfeld got top billing, but this was sammie's story. miles caton, i'm excited to see what you'll do!

+ lovely to see wunmi mosaku, who i have liked since in the flesh, getting such a great role. she's otherworldly beautiful.

+ i am always happy to see hailee steinfeld

+ delroy lindo!!!

+ i thought it was pretty cool how jack o'connell kept going in and out of that irish accent--added texture to the character

+ can chris eyre or somebody make a movie about the choctaw characters? it's tragic we lost jeff barnaby a few years back--he would have been awesome at that.

+ a bunch of people left when the credits started, and i feel sorry for them

+ rhiannon giddens on the soundtrack! honestly i would have side-eyed them if she hadn't been

+ i always think that i don't like horror movies but i think i need to admit to myself that i do like them, i just prefer them to be period pieces

+ the amount of time we had for set-up before the revelations of what kind of world we're actually operating in was excellent and not something i expect to see in 2025

+ the dialogue was layered enough that i feel like i'm going to keep picking up new little details on subsequent rewatches

+ in short: that was a Movie and i love a Movie

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I have heard so many awesome things about this movie and I want to see it! I am afraid I couldn't handle the gore. How much blood is there? Is there warning so that I could hide my eyes?

I know I would love all the rest of it, esp the jazz and blues.

Hmm...the first 2/3 you'd be just fine, but the last 1/3 is very gory. I guess it depends on what exactly bothers you? If it's the sight of blood at all, then I would probably give this movie a pass. If you don't like the sight of people getting injuries, then maybe you could just close your eyes.

tyvm

I would add a caveat that in the opening scene, which is a flash-forward, there are glimpses/flashes of violence/blood/vampires that made me jump (for me, that was more because they were unexpected than because they were really scary, but YMMV).

I saw it last Friday and agree on pretty much all of your thoughts. It's been a while since I've enjoyed a movie this much - there were several scenes where I got literal chills. Somehow everything about it just worked.

Amid all the dross and mediocrities, it's so nice to occasionally get a really good movie! I know this one doesn't have anything in common with Conclave, but I felt the same way about it--yay! an actual Movie and not an extended trailer!

wtf was up with using "wild mountain thyme" though that song is from the '50s????

I did see some interesting analysis of this one on Tumblr.

Anyway: WHAT a movie. I'm obsessed with, among other things, the way it cut together different things happening simultaneously/the flashbacks/flashforwards; that can be so cheesy when done badly but worked so well here.

The editor should also get an Oscar! I can't believe I forgot to mention them! The back and forth worked so well!

+ wtf was up with using "wild mountain thyme" though that song is from the '50s????

I have thoughts!

That is interesting! I still don't love the anachronism of it and considering that their other Irish pick was "Rocky Road to Dublin," I kind of feel like they were just taking the low-hanging fruit and not thinking as deeply about the Irish songs as they were about the Black songs. (Which: fair enough!) I love both songs, actually, so it's not a criticism of the songs themselves.

Oh, I think Rocky Road to Dublin was a very deliberate choice. It's a song specifically about the Irish emigrant experience of leaving home to look for work and finding discrimination everywhere you go:

Something crossed me mind, when I looked behind
No bundle could I find upon me stick a wobblin'
Enquiring for the rogue, said me Connaught brogue
Wasn't much in vogue on the rocky road to Dublin

[. . .]

The boys of Liverpool, when we safely landed
Called meself a fool, I could no longer stand it
Blood began to boil, temper I was losing
Poor old Erin's isle they began abusing

- which fits perfectly with Remmick's story being one of leaving his ancestral home behind and losing the ties he had to his culture. And Wild Mountain Thyme is also about leaving home - "I will roam the country o'er / Through that dark land so dreary / And all the spoils I find / I'll bring to my darling dearie." Literally bringing "spoils" back from your travels. It all ties in.

Okay, you've sold me on that choice!

SINNERS! this may be what finally kicks my ass into gear about watching this movie. i keep saying i'm going to because i really want to and then not doing it. (granted working ren faire on weekends rn has not helped)

Go see it!!! There are plenty of people I wouldn't recommend this film to, but if you looked at anything about and thought, "that sounds interesting" instead of "oh, no, yikes, I don't do gore/horror/whatever," then I am certain you would like it!

yeah. i don't always do gore/horror but i'm fine with it if it serves a good story and i love scary shit done well. plus just. this movie is steeped in so many things i'm into.

I am exactly the same way. The gore didn't bother me much in this one because...well...the plot.

Hah, i had no idea Wild Mountain Thyme was that recent!

It may have just been low hanging fruit (did they actually realize they were using newer elements?) but I kind of like to fanwank that Remmick is infected by whatever Sammy was doing and he's able to channel music across time because of his proximity to Sammy...even more obvious anachronism might have been cool in that context!

Apparently it was loosely based on something much older, but yeah.

I kind of like to fanwank that Remmick is infected by whatever Sammy was doing and he's able to channel music across time because of his proximity to Sammy...even more obvious anachronism might have been cool in that context!

I love that! An excellent fanwank!

It's such a good movie! I was worried going in because I'm a wuss when it comes to horror, but surprisingly I handled it okay (I think it helped a lot that there weren't many jump scares and it was really obvious when things were about to get super violent/gory so I could look away in time). Everything just felt so thoughtful, and coming from a place of sincerity, and we need mainstream movies like that more than ever.

The music was SO good. Re: the Irish music specifically, have you read this piece digging into the choice of songs? https://reactormag.com/lets-talk-about-the-irish-music-in-sinners/

It almost didn't even feel like horror to me? Maybe because of the lack of jump-scares and because of how much time it took to establish the characters and their world before the other stuff started?

Everything just felt so thoughtful, and coming from a place of sincerity, and we need mainstream movies like that more than ever.

Indeed!

I have not read that but it looks really interesting! Thank you for linking!