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Sinners

Apr 22, 20251 hr 4 minSeason 13Ep. 11
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Episode description

Some stories we inherit. Some are whispered through family trees. Others are passed down through song—riffs on pain, echoes of joy, blue notes of survival. In Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, we get all three. And this month, The Film Board—Pete, Tommy, and Andy—gathers to talk about a film that bends genres, then drips them in blood and gospel and IMAX-saturated twilight.This is a vampire movie. But not really. It’s a family tragedy. And a juke joint musical. And a war story. And a funeral procession through America’s haunted South. Coogler takes us to 1930s Mississippi, hands us twin bootleggers with hearts full of grief and bravado, and a blues prodigy whose voice can wake the dead—literally. From there, Sinners unfolds like folklore remembered through firelight and whispered across generations.In this conversation, the gang goes deep:
  • The political subtext of assimilation, vampirism, and cultural erasure
  • How Coogler’s personal history shaped the film’s emotional center
  • Michael B. Jordan’s twinned performance, and the miracle of not once being pulled out by the tech
  • Miles Caton’s debut as Sammie, and the spiritual power of music as both plot device and cultural artifact
  • Cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw’s historic use of IMAX 70mm, and how it reshapes Southern Gothic atmosphere
  • The final act’s controversial tonal shift—does the Klan shootout and 1990s epilogue work, or muddy the final notes?
Join us for a wide-ranging, no-holds-barred love letter to one of the year’s boldest films.Film Sundries
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Transcript

Speaker 1

Thanks for tuning in to another show in the next real family of film podcasts.

Speaker 2

I want to skip those ads and get early access.

Speaker 1

Become a member at true story dot fm, slash Joint, and discover all the other great perks that come with it.

Speaker 2

The Film Board gathers this month a gang comes together to talk about Ryan Cougler's latest genre blender. It's called Sinners, and it's what happens when a guy like Coogler watches interview with the Vampire, the Color Purple and Blade on the same night and thinks, Yeah, let's do all of this.

Speaker 1

We've been going a long time. Be back now, you twins, Ah, we cousins.

Speaker 3

There are legends of people with the gift of making music, so true Nick and conscious spirits from the path and the future. This gift can bring fame and fortune. Somebody take me, but it also can piece the veil between life and death.

Speaker 4

Listen here, this ain't no house party.

Speaker 1

Ship.

Speaker 3

You're all ready to drink, y'all all ready to sweat to y'all stinks you keep dancing with the devil. Careful boy, you're gonna bite off more than you can cheot. One day, he's gonna follow you home because it's a problem. Now the hell going on?

Speaker 2

Oh we heard tale of a party.

Speaker 3

This world already left you for dead. I can save you from your fate.

Speaker 2

You don't need no saving.

Speaker 3

Yes you do, and you will. I am. You're way out, don't care. It's all better now, Yes, a lot. I don't really imagine ghosts, dems, just power.

Speaker 1

Somebody please take.

Speaker 2

The moon is high, the air is thick with blues and blood, and somewhere down a dusty Mississippi back road, a juke joint that just opens its doors to the damned and to our panel. If you hear a fiddle playing behind him, it's not background music, it's a warning.

Speaker 3

It's Tommy Mets the Third, happy to be here, thank.

Speaker 2

You, and he once tried to make a deal at a crossroads but left early because the vibes were off.

Speaker 3

It's Andy Nelson, how howdy back again?

Speaker 2

This movie doesn't even start with with an A oh, that's right, that was your nor an m that was our thing? Was ms okay right and I beat right. I'm here to celebrate family trauma and the harmonica right along with the rest of you. It's sinners, my goodness, gracious Sinners.

Speaker 3

The movie was I.

Speaker 2

Think it's fair to say underappreciated early on when the news of the movie came out. I don't think a lot of people were talking about this movie as as going to be a thing, until suddenly everybody was talking about this movie as it was going to be a thing, like.

Speaker 3

All it spitting war over it. I think, I think so.

Speaker 2

It's also a legacy project. Apparently he's been working on this for in the back of his mind for years, like twenty five years, thinking about getting this movie made, and it is finally here. So let us do the the opening thoughts segment sponsored by Tom Metz. Tom, would you like to go first?

Speaker 3

Why is it sponsor byb.

Speaker 2

Because that one time you got so mad when I cut open.

Speaker 3

You went on past opening thoughts and I was like, I did, but my beautiful opening they're right here. I brought them for you, right opening thoughts. Sorry. Yes, I was excited and a little nervous about this movie because I am not a vampire head. I love horror movies, but I'm certainly vampires are not one of those. But when I saw the trailer, while I was afraid it was maybe giving a lot away, it reminded me of

like what if? And I know you already did a much cleverer than this is comparison, but it seemed like what if vampires were in Black Snake Moan? Or what if? From Dust Till Dawn was good? And so I went into this hoping fingers crossed, thinking it might be a good time. And it is so much movie. It is so has so many big swings, and I loved it.

I loved it so much. I thought it was outstanding, and it's so brave and weird and at times messy, and there was one point where I was like, oh no, this is the swing that's not paying off, and then it did. We'll get into it. I just really had a great, great time. This movie takes it incredibly seriously, and I'm fine with him. I love it.

Speaker 2

I'm so relieved I had. I was cursed this time around because I saw it before both of you, just in chronology, and I had to wait wondering if I was crazy, and I think, thank thank god I got to see Andy's review. Oh your I actually got to talk to him because I know where he landed.

Speaker 3

Andy, what'd you think?

Speaker 1

Yeah, this is an easy one to love. I was I was. I was already looking forward to it. I thought it would be if nothing else, it would just be a fun vampire movie to kind of like put vampires in in this the Jack Crow era South and or Jim his brother, Jim his brother he goes my check in some parts would grow Jim Crow era South. And I was like that, that's that could be fun. You know, I could have a fun time with that. And you've got Michael B. Jordan twins.

Speaker 3

I'm like, Okay, that's kind of fun.

Speaker 1

We'll see how he does kind of giving us the two variations of a character and see if I buy it. But then I was just like, as I was watching, I'm like Ryan Kugler is doing like there's an interesting element that he's throwing into the vampire story that I was really enjoying. The fact that the vampires saw what they were becoming is like this big family and it's like it didn't matter what color your skin was or anything. It's just like you're just one big family and they're

all just what. They're all out there singing Irish jigs and having a grand old time, and I'm like, Okay, this is an interesting way to kind of look at what vampires are at this particular point in time, and I thought Ryan Kugler was doing some interesting things with it, and I.

Speaker 2

Had a lot of fun, really enjoyed it.

Speaker 3

I beat real quick. The last thing that you texted me before I saw the movie was I got you said a God, I hope I'm not an island on this, and I desperately wanted to write back after I saw the movie. I'm sure the islands are nice this time, but I loved it. Yeah, that was that was gonna be real, real.

Speaker 2

Sad this this movie. I this is you know, every once in a while, I come across a movie where I really regret having seen the trailer. And I think this movie's marketing, you know, was a bit of a betrayal to some things that I thought were really fun and and I wish I could have felt the more original excitement, uh in those moments even as they were they were playing by because I'd seen them. And yet this is still I mean, like Andy said, this is an easy movie to love. This movie is doing so much.

The fact that it's what an hour before we get into some serious juke joint territory, before we start seeing smoking guy running across the prairie like this. Uh, this movie takes such time and care and patience to deliver these characters in such a robust way, like I really feel like we can know them. And I guess, as I say, I regret I saw the trailer. I apparently didn't watch the trailer closely enough because in the trailer, Michael B. Jordan says, to you know, the clan guy

when he says, are you two twins? He says, nah, we cousins. I thought I took that at face value. I was like, clearly their cousins, and he just casts somebody looks an awful lot like Michael B.

Speaker 1

Jordan.

Speaker 2

This The twinning was amazing in this movie was just outstanding. It was cast perfectly. I just love it. I am exuberant. I walked out and I immediately wanted to go see it again. So, like we said, this movie was kind of a big deal for Koogler. It's his first holy original screenplan, right. I mean, I guess if you don't count you know, Dracula as original material, it's his first

solely original thing. Even Fruitvale Station was an adaptation of something else, And you know, I find him an original director, even when working in franchises like Rocky. What did you think of the cooglarness of this thing?

Speaker 1

Well, I mean I think that I mean, I think Coogler is doing a lot to give us, to really give us a sense of this world, and he's shaping it fully by you know, as you guys have pointed out, we're really not even getting into the vampire part of

the story until a full hour in. That's a lot of time to spend with us getting to know who these characters are, getting a sense of the difference between Smoke and Stack as far as like their interests, their love interests, what they're both kind of like the attitude and everything. And also you're meeting all these different people in town, in and around town who are part of their lives, who might be helping them getting the jukes juke joints set up, or you know, former relationships, whatever.

You're really kind of getting this sense of them, and you're getting a sense of the presence that these two carry just by name, like everybody knows the Smokestack twins. And I think that's it creates such an interesting way to set our story up. And I think that that's what Coogler did exceptionally is just take the time to build this world and really give us, give us a

sense of these characters. The importance of music, I think was such a key thing, and obviously it has been for him in so many of his films because the I mean obviously his working relationships with Ludwig Gornson, who has been composing his music now also executive producing the movie.

I mean, clearly he sees music as like a critical element of the story, and to bring it into this one in such a key way I think was a part that probably was very important to Coogler to bring into the story, but also ended up becoming such a kind of an amazing way to kind of tie this world together, I think. So, I mean, those are elements that I definitely see that Coogler's bringing in just his passion for capturing fantastic images, you know. I mean, I

saw this in the seventy millimeter imax. I was lucky to have it in town here, and I mean a lot of the film, I mean, maybe I don't know two thirds is in the real wide screen that two eight five to one, But then when it just goes full screen, and some of those images. I mean, it's just it's kind of explosive. It's just amazing what he captured and how powerful those images hit.

Speaker 2

Interesting note Autumn derald Arkapa is the cinematographer behind this one, and she is the first woman to shoot a feature on large format IMAX.

Speaker 3

Wow that's great. Why just never thinking? Awesome?

Speaker 2

Yeah, absolutely fantastic. So Tom, what's your what's your sense of this stuff? The look, the feel, the koogleritis?

Speaker 3

Sure, I like, I love everything that Andy said, So go ahead, and like I want to rerecord his thoughts, okay with my voice and.

Speaker 2

You can lay those I'm gonna have AI to this.

Speaker 3

In addition, it makes a lot of sense that you say, I didn't realize that this was sort of a legacy something that he has been wanting to do for a long time. It really feels that way. This film feels incredibly confident in a way that just it feels like he takes some as to use my own phrases, he takes some really big swings. I mean, there are musical sequences.

There's an entire sequence where the one I'll go ahead and get it out of the way, the one that I was worried about is when the electric guitar shows up, when the when the guy is showing you know how well he can sing, and I was like, oh, no, okay, we're trying something out here, and then it ended up being one of my favorite parts of the entire movie, bringing in all of the cultures, all of those different

things into one incredible sequence. Also the singing the Irish jigs out in the woods like Andy said, and the really easy sort of choreography, the simplistic kind of stuff of that, they were just incredible sequences after incredible sequences. And then also this movie really felt incredibly cinematic while never feeling like a movie. It just feels so lived in.

And I love the importance of like watching the woman go across the street to or the follow the daughter to relieve the mother's for the mother to come up, because it just makes that whole world seem completely three sixty that you can turn everywhere, and it's just perfect

and so lived in and so much fun. And my biggest compliment I can give it is before the vampires showed up, I was fine with the movie we were in, and when the vampires showed up, I was equally as fine with the movie now instead of like waiting for things to happen, I could have lived in either world the entire time. And what a world it is. It's it's in a huge world. For a two hour movie. It feels like a legendary night. It really does without feeling overlong. So I was a huge, huge fan.

Speaker 2

Do you guys have any experience in that part of the country, and you know, have you ever been to a juke joint?

Speaker 3

Oh? Yes to the first. I don't know for the second one, but yes to the first. I mean, I have family members that live in towns that have been restructured and have different names because they were trying to keep certain races out. Yeah, there there are certain there. Some of them still live in towns where there are black establishments and white establishments and they just don't really cross.

Speaker 2

It's an amazing part of the country. I actually it's it's almost embarrassing to talk about it, but I was on a I was on a trip with some some guys who were going down to learn about the Mississippi Blues the Delta. We were doing the Blues Triangle, and so we actually spent some time in Clarksdale, where this movie is set. And we went to unincorporated Bolivar County, Mississippi, where the last juke joint was when it was still open.

It's called Poe Monkey's Juke Joint, and it literally is still powered by the whole building is still powered by like extension cables to a trunk on a pole that's very far away, like they have to plug the building in on the edge. It's a place that has been around so long that people used to play pay for their booze with sharecropper Wooden Nichols.

Speaker 3

And the movie it's incredible.

Speaker 2

Yeah, I mean this this was filmed in Louisiana. The

whole thing is from Louisiana. But I'll show you maybe after some of the pictures of Clarksdale so you can see what it looks like like it looks it felt so familiar and so the movie, Like when I saw it, it was not in great straits, right, it's not looking great, but the movie made it made this whole era feel so optimistic and hopeful and good right like even when they were you know, when he was out there and he shot the guy in the butt and the other guy in the knee for seiling, there was such an

air of like weird kindness around, like I regret doing that, but I had to shoot you in the butt and you in the knee because you know, I have a reputation.

Speaker 3

But they were all going to give you money to get patched. Yeah, I actually one to do it.

Speaker 2

Yeah, exactly exactly, So I found I'm I'm That was what I was going to say too, Tom that that the movie that they gave me to start with was fantastic already, Like I wanted to see how that played out. I could have sat in that for you know, another hour and twenty minutes, and then it turns around and gives us this incredible cultural explation of music. Do you listen to blues? Do you have the blues in your bones?

Speaker 3

You? Guys? I had a friend growing up I'm still a very very good friend of mine, Jason Small, and he used to listen to blues when everyone else was listening to Nirpana. So he got me into like Muddy Waters. I never really got into it, but I was aware of it, and now I love that music very much. Yeah, as I said, you know the aforementioned black Snake moan, Like I love that kind of slide guitar any of that stuff feels. So that's the other thing. This felt

like I was watching a live performance. Yeah, some of the music things, and that's really hard to capture on film. It's always just like, oh, whose friend's band is this? Like what is the relation to the director? Because it's just this weird cameo, And instead I felt like I was really in there.

Speaker 1

Well and I uh, I mean, obviously it has to be because of casting Miles Katan or cat and however say his last name, but who I mean, this is his first film, but I mean clearly he's a musician and clearly he's got had an incredible voice and delivered the performance.

Speaker 3

Face yeah, because voice almost seems dubbed in a cool way. It was.

Speaker 1

It was wild to see him and like, did you see at the very very end of the credits that the last old performance by him? It was, Yeah, it's just cool to see him delivering on that music and you can just you can tell that more than filmmaking perhaps, like music is wholly in his blood.

Speaker 2

You know, I'm going to show you Poe Monkeys just because I found a picture of it. Oh wow, nice, that's that's that's the juke joint, right, there.

Speaker 3

That's what they look like.

Speaker 2

And they all they were, They littered the landscape of of these plantations, these sharecropper plantations.

Speaker 3

And because it looks tiny, maybe just.

Speaker 2

It is tiny, but it's also very long, like it goes back a little bit of a ways, right, and so,

but but it is deceiving. You're you were jammed in there when you go in and there is all the dancing and all of the booze and all of the But again, the thing that I get away from it that I think this movie does so well is it celebrates the good feeling when you are in there and you know, I we walk in, as you know, a bunch of white men and we're definitely it felt a little bit shameful as kind of a tourist in this

culture we were, and yet we were welcome. We were welcomed, and Poe Monkey himself came and sat down with us, and I mean it was and that's what this movie did. I mean that I was really moved.

Speaker 3

When you were visiting it. Did you have to wait to be invited in? There was?

Speaker 2

There was no question. Nobody stopped at the door. And so so that piece I think is, you know, when when it turns into a different kind of movie. Uh, and we get to see how these people kind of adjust and adapt.

Speaker 3

What do you think.

Speaker 2

Think is the importance of the vampire story to this movie? Do you put any thought to that?

Speaker 1

Well, I mean, I think that's what you know. I found so interesting is that it was creating. Like, I mean, we get this sense of, Okay, it's these two well to do brothers who went to Chicago, supposedly made their fortune and now are buying this building from clearly in KKK. Yeah, I mean he says there's no KKDA on here, but you kind of get a look at him. You're like, yeah,

he's he's a member. And so you're getting a sense of the already a sense of kind of this time, this time in the South, and you're getting a sense that, Okay, these guys might be able to handle it. But I mean, even without the vampires, we end up seeing where that full story goes as we get to the end of the film. And so the vampire story this one where

he's like they're just all one big family. Now they all share each other's thoughts and it's just like we're all in happy and we love each other and like that's what Hayley Steinfeld's character says at one point. She's just like, once we kill you, we'll all be It's just all love. Like just like such an interesting way to take that vampire story and thematically put it into the deep redneck South, And I just thought that was an interesting way to kind of use the vampire mythos

to kind of craft this story. And then we have all of the people singing this, you know, the fantastic irish jig that they do, and they're all in it, like they're all having a grand old time. They're all dancing and thumping and the main guy is doing his little jig and everything, and like it was a blast watch. And they're all as passionate with that song as when we were in the club and they were singing that song in there. It's like that music that connects us

was like an important part of it. But it was just like then taking the vamporism as another element, I thought was such an interesting way to kind of use that myth.

Speaker 3

Because the vampires, what they're talking about is assimilation. Yeah, it would become one of us, join us. It seems like this movie in part is one of the ways, saying the only way that can ever work is to be damned, like, there's no good way to do that. The Jack O'Connor Connell Connor, my apologies. I think O'Connell talks about how you know, the Christians came in or the Catholics, whoever it was, came in and robbed him of his life, but then he sort of took on

some of their stuff. I don't it's not a great deal that the vampires are talking about.

Speaker 1

No, no, but it seems so interesting.

Speaker 3

It's like the only way and it's really cool, like to Andy's point to put it in the Gym South, which is all about okay, we've brought you here, you have won your freedom, and yet everything is based in keeping us apart. Right. All the lines are about gatekeeping. Yeah, it's like it's it's kind of like they're the one thing that united everybody is music. That's the one through line.

Speaker 2

That's it, right, Yeah, but the music was very different, right, And I think that's it. These are the perils of God, Jim Crow South, the perils of integration and the performative integration that comes from plantation, these sharecropper plantations, and that was a really interesting model for me to watch them talk about how like we're gonna have to use American like real federal currency. We can't use these wooden nickels. Well they're good at the general store. Well, that's part

of the integration story. That is performative, that is fake that you know, this is a way we're going to keep you separate from us. So, yeah, to your point, it's not a good deal. It's giving up who you are, your own identity in exchange for yeah, being damned. I think that's for in exchange for for nothing. And I think that makes it such a much more interesting story

than just another vampire story. It's a story about systemic oppression and uh and and what an entire culture had to leave behind in order to find some way forward by way of integration and uh it and the loss that comes from this is this is like a movie that is as much about mourning the loss of all that identity as it is about you know, fighting the bloodsuckers.

Speaker 3

And try and tribalism across the board. Yeah, we are hinted later at that they set off a war between the Italians and the Irish yep in order to steal all their stuff and like this, I mean, it's just yeah, it's the needing to take over instead of all being able to live separately equally. UH is also touched.

Speaker 1

On, and we also get this going back to the music. They're drawn here because of the music that Sammy can sing like he is one of these you know, we get at the beginning, like these certain people who can create such music that it can like touch on like this cosmic level other people. And that's like that was

this draw for these vampires like he. When Remick comes, he recognizes that you're the reason that we're here, Like, I need that because that can be the connection that I need to get back to some of those other elements.

Speaker 2

Fascinating what talk more about that, because that was the piece that It's not like I didn't find it sort of beautiful in its own right, but he the head vampire, was going to use Sammy to unlock his connection to his own ancestry.

Speaker 3

You're in his past that the music can transcend life and death and can grit so the people that he's lost after being alive for nine zillion vampire years, I think he would be able to bridge that connection.

Speaker 1

Okay, Like what we see during that performance, like you're seeing music from the past, from the future, from all these different cultures like coming together, Like that would be his way to kind of like reach out to those voices from his own past.

Speaker 3

It's almost like how Michael B. Jordan is able to see his wife and his child, but he had to die to do it. I think the idea is you would be able to have that connection without having to leave the I was gonna say mortal coil, but that's not exactly the vampire whatever.

Speaker 1

Colo immortal, the immortal immortal coil.

Speaker 2

Oh, it's just a real sort of Jacob's ladder journey, right, Like the sort of transcendent piece I find really interesting, And you guys appreciated that piece of it, right, the musical transcendence.

Speaker 1

Okay, I was going to say, did you not know?

Speaker 3

I did?

Speaker 1

Very very much? Are you kidding?

Speaker 3

In the bag for this movie? That's really the lifeblood of the movie. And it's almost like it's the way I'm sort of chasing this thought like a hound. But it's almost like the way that skin color or race connects people, or tribalism connects people. You know that they're saying that music is something that can cross, all boundaries can cross. Everything really brings us together no matter what.

Speaker 1

And what was so interesting about that is when we have that performance at the heart of the film, when when what the narrator comes in and is talking about how music can transcend you know, space and time. Essentially, we're getting a lot of other African Americans performing those songs. But once we move into to Grace and follow her as she goes into the back room to follow, you know, to find her husband where he's gambling, this is our

Chinese couple. Suddenly we're seeing Chinese performers and everything, and so it's like it doesn't matter. It's just like once you hear it and once it touches your soul, it kind of transcends whatever it is and you're in a place where where it's connecting to you.

Speaker 3

Right.

Speaker 2

Yeah, yeah, just beautiful, absolutely beautiful. Okay, let's talk about Michael B. Jordan playing the Twins. Technically, technically, I did not see anything that took me out of the movie. And they were doing some amazing things with the twinning. They were handing the cigarettes back and forth, they were I think the way that.

Speaker 3

They start what I was talking to the confidence of this movie. That's such a in a cool way, show offye way to show how perfect it is. I just what I was laughing about, was I just I wonder if Barry Alto Knights Levinson has seen this movie and been.

Speaker 2

Like, oh, are you doing it?

Speaker 3

It's not just new people on opposite sides of the screen staring right with a clear line in the wall between. No, it's I mean, it's done so well and it knows it and so right off the bat, it's breaking rules. Like I just don't understand how they did it other than with modeled body doubling, you know, or masking or something like that. But it's incredible, and they were so cool and lived in they're both I want to hang out with those guys, and they would not like it. No, not at all.

Speaker 1

I I my guess, And I can't remember if I actually heard this or not. Was but that it was like a social network type of like body doubling with somebody and then they just did the facial replacements as needed in order to make it work. And I mean, that's the only way that really makes sense, the way that they were they were filming it.

Speaker 2

Sure, thank god it worked. It worked, and he played it really really well. I mean the fact that they were twins and already like felt you know, you could obviously see their similarities, but where you see their differences in their behavior and their you know, the way they move and the way they speak, I thought was just really special, really really special.

Speaker 3

And especially subtle. It wasn't over the top of like one of them's like hey, get a load of me, like. It was very They were both like tweens, right, they were extremely strong. You understand why they're both revered and feared, but they're just different ways. I was personally thankful for the red hat, blue hat at times, yeah, just where they weren't speaking it that helped me remember who exactly are we dealing with?

Speaker 2

But yeah, well and also the teeth, right, the gold teeth. Thought that was a nice touch. That was a really nice touch.

Speaker 1

It also worked just like the relationships that they had, like and I really liked that we had fleshed out relationships between each of them that I really enjoyed kind

of seeing how they were going to unfold. And I think playing off of the you know, both Hailee Steinfeld and wound me Masaku, like Coogler does a great job of fully building relationships, like a history each of them in ways that made me really buy into the fact that these are two people who have created two separate lives with different people.

Speaker 3

That's a great point.

Speaker 2

The the Chinese couple, the Chows, I think, I mean, I obviously I was in the bag for this movie, but I think the moment they opened their mouths and had Southern accents, I thought, this is he's done something

really really special. He's done something right. Like they felt as lived in as any other characters, and again as part of that community in downtown Clarksdale, you know, as you know, speaking the lingo, speaking the sort of negotiative lingo that that they're you know, of being store owners. I thought was just just really really perfect. The fact that she's the one to break down in the end at seeing her husband.

Speaker 1

It was.

Speaker 2

It was a really incredible, like a signature moment of the film. I'm curious how that impacted you, when she screams, get in get in here.

Speaker 3

Essentially loved it so much, And when I saw that it was coming, when they start covering her mouth and stuff, I started bouncing up and down in my seat. One of the reasons that I loved it so much. Was it was a purposeful move made out of anger instead of Oops, I got duped or I'm so sad that I'm doing this. Instead it was it wasn't come on in. It was come on in mother efforts because I need

my vengeance. Yeah, I mean you have destroyed and are risking destroying the rest of my life, and so I love that instead of someone because we already had people sort of like accidentally limping and falling into a pile of vampires. To have it be this whole team of like, okay, and then they all run and get the supplies and stuff outstanding, Yeah, so good.

Speaker 2

They're all on the same absolute, the same sort of emotional page. Like if it wasn't her, it very well could have been anybody else in the in the building at that point.

Speaker 1

It very well come So many of them had lost people that they need and loved.

Speaker 3

Yeah, and it was actually going to it was Michael B. Jordan was the one that was almost going to sadly strumble outside until they brought him back. Right, a brave decision to make.

Speaker 2

The movie is really straight across the bow with the Book of the Vampire. Right, in terms of the rules. I think one of the things that we get with with modern vampire movies is, you know, there is some sort of we're gonna we're gonna like really push our own kind of vampire. This is this felt like a really stereotypical, classical vampire. Right from the first kill that we see, where Remick kills the clan member in the

house in the beginning. He had only killed him moments before, and he got up again and was now a vampire. That was a really efficient to keep this movie kind of propulsive, to keep it it moving like a freight train, when we don't have to wait for the victims to turn into vampires. What's your sense of how the movie handles the rest of the lore? And Tom, I'm want to start with you because you're the one who brought the Book of the Vampire to Sitting in the Dark in the first place.

Speaker 3

I started to get when it started with the cave paintings or whatever you want to call that, and talking about the different people that have different words for this. I did start to get a little nervous when movies start like that. I always like, I was like, oh, no, is this another lady in the water, Like where it's going to lose itself in the lore. Instead, it was done extremely economically and just when you needed maybe a

little reminder, certain people needed it. He was really good about flashing back, bringing the narration back in to help understand why there's an electric guitar guy, you know, in the bar. I thought it worked really well and it really helped let you know, from the beginning, keep your eyes well, keep your ears on the music. That's what this movie is about. There's gonna be a lot of stuff in this movie, but really it's the music is the unifying thing. So I thought it worked really well. Well.

Speaker 1

I then give us a sense of, you know, especially through Annie's character, a sense already of a character who is kind of connected to some sort of spiritual, mythological sort of whatever it is. She's doing the voodoo. I don't know what she is. She's got all of her little things that she's doing, so she already has that sort of thing, and she actually calls it out at one point of like their hates whatever, and yeah, so she's got this sense of something until she realizes that

they're vampires. And so they are already setting up a story about people who have a sense of like there could be things like this out there, you know, and just oh that most people don't actually see them. And then when it turns into the vampires. I liked that they kept it kind of also along the kind of mythological lines, like it's just kind of this like, yeah, they bite someone, and within a couple of minutes they're

standing back up ready to fight. They don't heal like the one guy who gets shot in the face, like his jaws like hanging.

Speaker 3

Off the rest of the rest of the movie.

Speaker 1

It's not like self heal like you see in some of them, or or or anything like that. It's just they are. They are kind of vampiric. You've got the garlic, you've got the sunlight, You've got all of those different things that they just kind of keep in there. But it all kind of because we had that kind of sense to something else already. It just kind of added to that spiritual flavor. I liked the way that they developed it.

Speaker 2

I found it really refreshing to go back to just some basics. I don't have to learn about people have, Oh they have shiny skin, can't they sparkle when they go outside? I don't have to learn new rules. Like I felt like this movie it was shorthand for my introduction to this universe. I was being introduced to a lot of new cultural concepts. But you didn't have to teach me about vampires because I understood the rule set

going in, and I thought that was great. The one thing that did confuse me, if I'm going to, you know, push my glasses up on my nose, the people who became vampires in the juke joint? Why did they have to be asked in again?

Speaker 1

Because they were outside when they like they It's not like they were inside as humans. They got attacked outside of the juke joint, so they didn't get it, so they're outside now they have to get asked back in again.

Speaker 2

But let's say with the twins Stoke Broke, Smoke, Smoke or Stack, one of them was turned into a vampire in the building, but then he couldn't come back in once he left until.

Speaker 1

He were invited.

Speaker 3

Yeah. Yeah, I mean I have a flag on the field, am I right? I don't know. I don't know that anyway.

Speaker 2

Too long during the movie, I was like, come on, somebody explained why they have to guy, I mean, we're really so yeah, that was that was but he's.

Speaker 1

The only one that we have that issue with. Everyone else was turned to vampire outside.

Speaker 2

You're right, you're right. I was thinking Hailey Seinfeld was, but she was invited back in Cornbread letter in yeah right, right right.

Speaker 3

I liked the the thing slashed the faculty pass around the thing to see who is the hidden vampire within this and this time it's garlic. I was wondering, I just I love the idea of I was like, how are they why would they have garlic? And then the idea that it's pickled garlic was something that you would eat. That just seems like the kind of thing that Ryan Cooglo, who's writing is like, nice, yeah, no kidding, we already had chairs, but how am I going to get garlic

in there? Oh? Perfect to your point about the short pand and how refreshing it was. It was also cool that she just used the word vampires instead of walking dead, day walkers, night walkers, like it's just like but I also want to underline Andy's I didn't think about that. The sheer importance of having the hoodoo that his wife ex wife was have that in the world really does smooth the gears. That's not a phrase, you know what

I mean? It really it lets it all sort of seem like the world has lived in instead of just a weird train that comes out of nowhere. Yeah, which I think, like Dustill Dawn is.

Speaker 2

You think Dustill Done' is a weird train.

Speaker 1

Okay, Well, because.

Speaker 3

It's just because I was. I was enjoying the movie so much, and then the Vampire started and I didn't think I thought the transition was incredibly inelegant and played for laughs but also tried to play it just didn't work. That was just two movies colliding. This felt like when like one of my favorite things that movies do, and this movie did a great job, is when you know we're leading towards this big event. He gathered all the troops, everyone's getting in their cars and is high really big.

It might as well be like drum beats, like heading into They're all going to the place that we're going to be spending the rest of the movie to try to find out how does this leak link to the Cold Open. It's just all that big, big stuff that I love so much. It's really neat to treat it like that. That's sorry. Why I brought that up. Is that's a movie that is taking you on the ride. It's treating its nose. We're going into battle, so let's

send the score through the roof. Let's see everybody and where we are versus just Okay, there's the guy from Cheech and Chong screaming at you from the front door. Apparently I've seen From Dustill Down too many times.

Speaker 2

I haven't seen it in a long time. I feel like I need to watch it again. But to your point about this movie, that transition actually as surprising as it could have been had I not known it was a vampire movie. It is an elegant transition. Like it does feel like they're they've been insinuating it the entire time. It's very very powerful. Is Delroy Lindo your favorite character in the band for sure?

Speaker 3

And why I'll make the decision for us.

Speaker 2

Yeah, I loved I sometimes have issues with del Roy Lindo sometimes like I'm kind of hot and cold. I am very hot on del Roy Lindo in this movie. I thought he was exemplary.

Speaker 3

Yep, I completely agree. He's a great addition to it.

Speaker 1

I don't know when you would have problems with Delroy Lindo. I just always enjoy him and I think he's just so great here. I had I had such a great time with him, with his character as the one who had had so much Irish beerau that he could barely stomach eating a clove of garlic. And it almost gets shot for it, like it just it played really well, and he's just he is just a lot of fun. He clearly was having a fun time with this one well.

Speaker 2

And he gets he gets the monologue right. He gets a wonderful, wonderful car ride monologue about you know, his experience. I thought he was He just delivered it perfectly. And they do. They get a lot of i'll say it out loud, a lot of mileage out of car trips in this movie. And I think they do it really well. I loved when Sammy starts playing the guitar in the car. What a fantastic moment for them to share, you know, surprising Smoke with his talent and joy for playing the music.

I thought it was really really fantastic. He grows up Sammy to be Buddy Guy. He you know, a great renown blues musician, Buddy Guy. Just I mean that was if you if you follow the Blues, that's stunt casting if I've ever seen it.

Speaker 3

I didn't realize does buddy guy have a scar or they're just putting it? Okay, got it. I didn't realize that that was I knew it was a real Blues person, but I didn't know who that was. Okay, that's yeah, really cool.

Speaker 2

I thought it really really cool to see him, to get him, you know, playing, and to have there's this moment at the end. This is where so that the way the movie wraps up. If I'm reading people who have their four four and a half star reviews of this movie, it's because of a couple of elements at the end. So let me just back up a little bit. The vampire part of the movie ends, and everybody you know gets out and does their thing. If they get out,

we have the massive fire tornado. As Remick disappears, we have all the other vampires that were outside. The sun comes up and they flame on and it's amazing. I thought that the shot was beautiful. It was captured well, and that part of the story ends. The next little chapter after we get back to the cold open kind

of to bookend it, Sammy goes home. That next little chapter is the arrival of the clan, led by the guy who sold them the barn in the first place, and they come with their guns, but wait a minute, Michael b Jordan is ready for them and ambushes them, and along the way he gets himself shot. The clan bit is the first of these elements that it seems like people might be having a little bit of trouble with, because that is a major action scene that feels a

touch shoehorned in. The next element is this love letter in nineteen ninety six back to the Back to the Blues bit, where Hailey Steinfeld and Michael b Jordan's show up in their fantastic nineties sweaters and have it's like a love letter to the blues music.

Speaker 3

Right.

Speaker 2

Yes we're vampires, Yes we've lived all this time, we haven't changed. We're beautiful people. Also, the last thing my brother said before he let me live was I have to leave you alone. And so instead I've bought all your albums and I'm a fan. That was a love letter too, as much to Sammy as it was to but Guy. And then we have the final you know sequence at the end where we have him playing just alone in the church Miles Castle. Yeah, this little light

of mine, beautiful, beautiful piece. I as as a lover of all of these things, the music and the sort of cultural pieces of it, I didn't really have a problem with it. I can almost see the clan trouble that people are having that action sequence. I can see a universe where that feels less earned. What is your stance on that last shootout?

Speaker 1

For me, it was earned because that was just an interesting an interesting element that we that he learns from the vampires, you know, And I thought that was actually

an interesting twist. The fact that the as it happens, the first two people local people that Remick turns happened to be the in the clan, and like I can't remember, he's like the nephew of the of the guy who sold him the place, and so they know that it's like this whole ambush thing and they're fully intending on doing this, and so the fact that that just essentially becomes a setup for wrapping up that part of the story and kind of like getting that final revenge, I

just felt like it was you know, it's like some people would say it's like attacked on ending, but for me, it was earned because we set it up. We already have that you doubt about, like is this guy for real? Who's selling him this place? And then it just completes the story. It's a full payoff of that.

Speaker 3

And also it also shows us. I mean, the idea that they find out that from the vampires that they're coming, and that's why he's able to be so prepared to finally get the trunk out, is that the fix was always in. If the vampires didn't show up, they probably wouldn't be prepared and they would still be attacked. It was never going to work in this fair terrible society. There are chips you can't even see are against you and so and so there is something cathartic then also

of okay, I went through something hellish. Now I learned something from that. And now another wave of bad guys shows up. And these guys don't get back up. They are very easy to defeat compared to the people that we had. There's no lore, there's no anything that we have to do, just a really big gun and then they fall down. Well, yeah, there's something pretty cathartic about that for me I and the end, the audience clapped in my theater.

Speaker 1

Well, yeah, yeah, definitely, And we get a really touching final moment between the brother camera was that smoke or stack whichever one that is? Uh and his you know, ex wife Annie and their infant son. Like, what a touching way to wrap that up like it was just like absolutely heartwarming to see that that familial finale that he ended up having there.

Speaker 2

Hailey Steinfeld's last person we haven't really talked about. I thought she did a fantastic job.

Speaker 3

I think I'll like her more in this than I've liked her in other things. Not to take to take away from the other things. I just she really burst through the screen in a cool way. I also appreciated just this movie also in certain movies, especially male driven movies with Michael B. Jordan and Ryan Coogler. This film was also very interested and attentive to female pleasure, which

is always always so appreciated. I'd love that so much that that lost heeded references to female pleasure, what you do to give female pleasure, the importance of female pleasure and females being allowed to have pleasure and not being as bad or castigated against anything like that.

Speaker 2

Yeah, there's I mean there's a straight up cars speaking of great things you learn in cars kind of lingis there's practically a tutorial.

Speaker 3

Yeah, this is a it's a really sexy movie, and it's funny and it's scary. I mean it's and it handles all of it. There's just not this car crash of the different tones. It all just works.

Speaker 1

So neat a couple things with Hailey Steinfeld, just a couple scenes that stick out, which just because the way that they were done. One you brought up the ending, Pete. We didn't talk about that other ending, but I thought it was so interesting that they essentially are here to say, we've been around, we love your music. I was, you know, I made a deal with my brother to not do anything to you, but we will. Your time's almost up. If you want us to, we can totally take care of you, you know.

Speaker 3

I was like, that's an.

Speaker 1

Interesting way to kind of like have that closure between those characters like and and him to say I'm good.

Speaker 3

You know. I don't know.

Speaker 1

It was just it was really weirdly touching, you know, to have that but to characters in him. I really enjoyed that also. I just I really it was such a great and simple and effective way to convey the vampire. You got Mary who goes outside just to talk to the white people because she's white and she can talk to them, and you know, see if they're being serious about, you know, the money that they have. You've got that

interesting little connection between those characters. And she finally leaves, and it's just a simple shot as she's walking back toward camera and you see you see Remick and you just see him like disappear, like he just jumps up, and that's kind of the last we see before she comes back in and we know that she's been attacked. Like just simple ways to kind of convey these things that I think Googler found that just worked really well.

Speaker 2

That was another interesting thing, speaking specifically of the effects and the kills. I mean, the effects I think looked very good. The makeup effects looked great. The fact that the vampire was so judicious when killing her as to do it under her shoulder strap on her backs so that she couldn't be seen when a lot of the kills were quite bloody and quite gruesome.

Speaker 3

And same with the Asian shopkeeper the husband. Yes you can't see that either. Yeah, that's a good point. I didn't think about that, that they're using to try to get in same with cornbread right now, right well, that they want to try to use as stooges to get inside they or they're really careful about where they're baiting them. I never thought of that, That's exactly.

Speaker 2

Which is so interesting, especially when you look at Hiley Seinfeld, who does have you know, in her family lineage, apparently does have black ancestry, and so she brings yeah, she brings up this this whole Did you guys see the movie Passing? Fantastic fantastic movie about these women who were light skinned black people who were passing as white people. And what is the sort of moral, uh, you know, or cultural justification behind doing that? Are you not proud

of your own ancestry? Do you just you know, are you trying to avoid you know, avoid something, you know, avoid you know, the overt racism in a in a dark time. Well, that sort of biting people in a way that they can't that it can't be seen, is essentially vampires passing, right, They want to pass so that they can right get away with this case, get away with some horrible stuff. But I find it so I find it really interesting the way they used the tool

of the transformation in this movie. It didn't it worked a couple of times, right, I mean I think it worked. Did it worked twice? Steinfeld got in she was the only one. She might be the only one.

Speaker 1

Yeah, because then they start questioning everyone after that. Yeah, you're right pretty much. Yeah, you're right. I mean you could say it doesn't necessarily work. But the initial racist couple that Remich brings along, now granted they've all cleaned up, like all the blood is off of all of Yeah, and it doesn't work. But I mean I think that's that just goes to your point that Ramik was being very careful about how and where he would bite people so that he could use them to his advantage. Yeah,

which is very different for vampires. Usually it's just a big you know, right in the neck and then you just you always have the two marks there, you know.

Speaker 2

Yeah, it was like playing by the old rules, but in a strategic way that I thought the movie captured quite well. I think it's it's you know, I'm just the trailer is playing on a loop here, and it's so funny. The hero shots in the trailer. A lot of some of the hero shots, especially the biggest hero shots in the trailer are Michael B. Jordan with a big gun, and that doesn't happen at all in the

main part of the movie. It happens in the final you know, clan shootout, and it's it's the hero shot of the film.

Speaker 3

I thought the score was appropriately Apart from the score versus music, the music is outstanding. Of course, the score is at times operatic, at times is almost campily monster movie, but it plays all the way to the top without ever becoming campy or taking me out of it. It's taking things so seriously in a fun way that it's a nice offshoot from the blues and the other music that we have in the film. I was a really big fan of the score.

Speaker 1

Well, yeah, and I love what Gorenson does, especially like the music that he's been crafting for Coogler's films, like you see that with like the Black Panther score, where he's tapping into some really unique African instruments and bringing that into the score to kind of create the music. And here like he did a lot of research on like those old thirties and forties blues sorts of recordings and really kind of built his score around all of that, and it's I mean, you're to your point. Is it

goes big when it needs to. It is personal, like fantastic individual themes for different characters and relationships and everything. Like it was a score that was exceptional. Like I mean, this film is it's such a surprise of a film. As I was watching it, I'm like, I mean it's like another Everything everywhere is like, is this movie gonna be up for Best Picture? Will people be talking about it come Oscar season next year? I don't know. I'd like to think so.

Speaker 2

God, I hope so. I felt like there were so many performances in here that need to be really appreciated on the awards circuit. I just I really do. This was such a wonderful There's not one performer in here, not one thing that took me out of the movie, right. I was just in the pocket of this thing the entire time. Yeah, great stuff, great stuff. I'm sorry we couldn't fight more. I think that makes me Podcasting Rod

Letterbox letterbox dot Com slash the next Reel. That's where you can find all of the films that we've talked about on our various shows. This is where we put our stars in our hearts, and i'm you guys have to go first. Tom, You've already put yours in here. I can't what is going on with your rating for this thing? It's a heart, You're good.

Speaker 1

I just have to say, like you called people out on saying, yeah, if you have problems with the ending, Like there's people who are giving it a four or four and a half, they obviously have problems with the ending.

Speaker 3

I just put neither of you.

Speaker 2

You too, you too, You're you're pre calling yourself out because you guys are both four and a half stars, and I want to know why.

Speaker 4

As opposed to what five four and a half is an extraordinary four. I've given one film five this entire time, and it was because it did the best job it possibly could with what it was delivering, and that was Hamilton the Musical.

Speaker 2

This movie musical.

Speaker 3

Yeah, Hamilton the Musical is the only movie I've ever given five stars to on this podcast. This movie I need to see it again. I want to see you again. But I mean, four point five is near perfect. I thought this was an outstanding movie. Uh, and I really look forward to seeing it again.

Speaker 2

Okay, I'll give that to you, Andy. Why are you four and a half stars?

Speaker 1

I just I am four and a half stars. I think that's a really good score, and that's where I score.

Speaker 3

Weird who yells the teacher over an as I do?

Speaker 2

I'm that guy. Okay, I'm a five star. I think this is a five star movie. Maybe it will and and part of it I recognize is my the the uh let's just say five. Uh, my five star artificiality because I can't do four and a half stars. I don't believe in them, and so I need to call them out. It's antithetical to my ideology.

Speaker 1

But you're saying you wouldn't give it a four and a half if that was an option for you anyway.

Speaker 3

No, that's true.

Speaker 1

Yeah, that's why I want saying four and a half because I five, because I can't do four and a half.

Speaker 2

This is a meager, meager podcast fight. Let's just say that we're.

Speaker 1

Not doing this is not we wanted to know.

Speaker 3

I did. I wanted to pick a fight.

Speaker 2

I wanted a little bit of fireworks, and I'm kind of done.

Speaker 3

I moved on.

Speaker 2

This will round up gloriously to a five on our letterbox.

Speaker 1

Follow us. What can I say one thing you want to I'm just saying, like you wanted reasons, I'm here to give you a reason. Four and a half? Did we need to start the film with the book ending it with a moment the next morning?

Speaker 3

Like? Did that?

Speaker 1

Did we have to start that? Couldn't we have just started the film without that?

Speaker 3

I personally was glad it was there. I'm a huge fan of cold opens, of buying time, and because it gave import to everything that was going forward. And then one of my favorite I mean, you know what a geek I am about contain pieces, small pieces, things that sometimes could be a play for it to say one day earlier, I was just true, all everything we're going to see is just this one man with day and night.

Filled me with so much excitement, and then the movie delivers completely, So I completely I get that it didn't need it, but for me, it made everything lean forward, It gave everything informant.

Speaker 1

Yeah, all right, fine, that's not a reason to give it for an hour, but I'm still giving it.

Speaker 3

For our.

Speaker 2

Excellent excellent. I feel like that's fine as long as you're you're still thinking about it.

Speaker 3

When a five star movie from when I see it again.

Speaker 2

Yeah, this is one of those movies where I'm just to your point about the score. Immediately went over to Apple Music and added both the score and the soundtrack both available, and they're both so good. They're so so good. Oh my god. And yeah, I mean, this is this. I can't buy it yet, but you bet I will buy this movie. This will be a collective one for the collection, and I can't wait for whatever the special features are. Good, Lord, give me some good special features.

I want to be a part of that. Did you see I know, Andy saw it, Tom. Did you see the video of Coogler going through four with a white board?

Speaker 3

A friend of the show, Johnny Jacaloney and Darnelle Smith sent both sent to me, and I thought that was a really smart Johnny pointed out, this is a really smart way to get people to go see it in the theater. Yeah, like to get nerdy about it and really break it down. I thought that was really cool.

Speaker 2

Yeah, for sure, I thought that was great. I'll put the link in the notes because it's it's worth watching. And he's just really smart, you know that he's thinking about about this stuff, like thinking at this level. I thought it was neat to have him in his perspective with his whiteboard.

Speaker 3

It's really good.

Speaker 2

That's great, really fun coming up next month, Tom, would you introduce because I know this is your movie, this was your pick.

Speaker 3

Well, the last time I got to pick, I chose y two K. I'm not allowed to pick movies anymore. So this time we're seeing the hopefully redemptive and good and course setting thunderbolts asterisks. I don't know why there was an asterisk. I know nothing, so I know so little about this movie, but I have seen a trailer. There is one interesting thing I do want to point out is this is one of the only Marvel trailers that I've seen where I don't know who the bad guy is. They show a.

Speaker 1

Floating a new trailer where they introduced him.

Speaker 3

Right, Oh, I didn't.

Speaker 2

I saw the floating person, and there's it's always the behind the head.

Speaker 3

The trailer before Sinners, and I saw Sinners this afternoon, right before I came here. It was that same old trailer and it's just a voice and someone making people into shadows. But I don't know who it is, which makes me a little afraid that it's another like Tim Blake Nilson from Captain America years ago. They're hiding the bad guy because he didn't turn out that break. But we'll see, Yeah, we are seeing Thunderbolts Asterix correct.

Speaker 2

Yes, we are seeing Thunderbolts. Asks it comes out the first weekend. It's our scheduling for the summer is going to get a little bit squishy, so we're going to find a time. It probably won't be opening weekend when this episode comes out, but we are going to talk about Thunderbolts from a interesting thing about some of the marketing.

They're starting to do some Mission Impossible style viral stuff where you you know, I just the one I just watched was what's her name, The New Black Widow Florence Pugh,

Florence Pugh talking about how much she loves heights. She's so excited about heights, And there's a sequence in the trailer where she takes us an elegant step off a very tall building and falls, and they showed they show her doing that stunt, getting rigged up to do that stunt herself and be hung out over this building, and it reminded me very much of the last of the Mission Impossible stuff that's that's been coming out in the

where they actually show you the whole stunt. Uh, so you can see what Tom Cruise did that they put the actor in this place, and I think that's a really interesting, interesting bit.

Speaker 1

I'm excited for it, and.

Speaker 3

So especially now that there's a stunt oscar. Yeah right, so maybe we'll be seeing even more and more of that for sure. So so that's it.

Speaker 2

That's the big one, because you know, we worship at the altar of clicks. Thank you everybody for hanging out with us. We appreciate your time and attention, uh listening to the show.

Speaker 1

Go see this movie.

Speaker 2

It's totally worth seeing. It's not like the other movies we talked about on the film board.

Speaker 3

This one's really.

Speaker 2

Good and uh it's not like my duo que uh and Andy. Thank you for coming back and doing a show that doesn't start with them.

Speaker 1

You bet. I'm glad to be here. Lots of fun.

Speaker 2

Always always a treat to have you on the show. And Tommy, you know, we did good time.

Speaker 3

We did good this time. Kid. Shout out to Suzanne Zizzi who is my film board friend and she's a listener of the show. So we will see you at Thunderballs.

Speaker 2

Meeting a journey

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