We Will not be Forgiven Our Sins

The great sin of American life is race.

Our forefathers,the most brillant collection of men ever assembled, foolishly declared blacks to be three-fifths human.

Ever since then when someone,a Lincohn,a King,a Rosa Parks,a Lyndon Johnson,or Barack Obama tries to bring us up to the better angels of our nature,a fat waddling duck of a devil, dressed in a long red and tacky blue suit, waddles across our national soul, defecating along the way.

Sinners,the superb new film by Ryan Coogler address's this issue though the trope of a vampire story.

Before I review this wonderful,horrifying movie we should take a moment to acknowledge the genius of the soundtrack. The Blues have never been more beautiful or raw. The Irish folksongs song by the first wave of vampires are haunting.

The story starts when two identical twins,Smoke and Stack return to the Mississippi Delta after a long sojourn in Chicago working for mobsters.

The twins,played by Michael B Jordan (can an actor win the best actor Oscar twice for the same movie?) plan to open a blues joint in a refitted barn,bought from a white man who assures the twins that there is no more Klan in 1932 America.

The twins sick of northern hypocrisy decide to buy the barn even though they the man is full of it. Just how full they will discover.

Before buying the barn, Smoke and Stack recruit their cousin Sammie,a talented Blues player to play at The Juke as the barn has been rechristened.

Meanwhile Remmick the Irish vampire has been recruiting an army of undead,not just to drink the blood of the living,but also to drink of their experiences and most importantly talent,especially,Sammie's.

As a metaphor for assimilation this idea is so evocative and insightful that one dearly wishes Baz Luhrmann could have seen this movie before making Elvis.

It's also an indictment of the dream of intergration. One doesn't watch Irish vampires attack the one group lower on the ladder without losing one's faith a little.

Malcolm X argued for a third way. Black own and black operated business and homes. This is the way of Smoke and Stack and for a short while it works. But ultimately white racism and the power structures greed, well see the movie.

Do go see the movie. Declaring anything the best of the year makes me uncomfortable, given everyone differenting tastes. This however may by the classic exception to the rule.

P, S, for a more in depth look at this movie I urge you to go to the fine podcast The Next Picture Show. Their analysis far out strips my own.