I Watched the Most Exclusive Screening of "Sinners".

If you are lucky enough to live in one of ___ cities with a movie theatre screen "Sinners" in 70mm IMAX, do yourself a favor and take the weekend off to do just that. If you're really lucky, you may even live near a theatre with the highly exclusive 5-Perf 70mm 2.76:1 screening, reminiscent of director Ryan Coogler's time watching movies with his parents at the ___ in ____, California. I suppose the cinema deities smiled upon this day as I was fortunate enough to attend both of these extremely rare versions of the film.

I want to start this off with full transparency, I am biased. I won't hide it, I don't feel bad about, and now you know. Being born in Louisiana and raised all over the south, I felt especially pleased to see the more inconspicuous roots of the region flourish so well in a major studio film. This was an especially welcome surprise coming from a writer and director hailing from the west coast. Knowing that Coogler and the team over at Proximity Media decided to do a heavy amount of the shooting down in Louisiana is just a gift that keeps on giving for me.

In the opening moments of the movie, we are greeted with beautifully haunting opening monologue which weaves the plot-centric lore driving the action of the story. It's a simple explanation, weaving in the existence of humans who, through music, can blur the line between natural and the supernatural. It serves as an effective way to introduce the ideas central to the plot: music, freedom, and the paranormal. The next moments feature in media res, as 'Sinners' main protagonist Sammie "Preacher Boy" Moore pulls down the road in a red saloon car. Might I add this is very first shot in the movie is arguably one of the most beautiful. I completely understand why Ryan Coogler and Cinematographer, Autumn Durald Arkapaw, choose this as one of the select few scenes to displayed in full 1.43:1 glory. Sammie steps out of the automobile and limps his way into an small, unmarked white shed-like building we come to realize is a church. Upon entry, the congregation and the audience alike are presented with the disheveled look of the young man who's entered the premises. Sweating and grimy, his clothes covered in blood and dirt with a distinct, gnarly scar from what appears to be 3 claws on his face, the young Sammie is a truly horrid sight to behold. It's a real grisly scene, that nearly convinced me that the young Preacher Boy was somehow the enemy, perhaps some sort of ghoul that has inhabited his body. Oh, and we can not forget that this entire time he has been holding the broken headstock and neck of an acoustic guitar. A grim foreshadowing of what's to come.

Without delving into too many spoilers, I'd like to highlight the next near hour of exposition that the movie brings us through. It's a slow paced start to a movie that gets real action heavy real fast, but I for one welcomed the drawn out exposition. It is during this time that we are introduced to Michael B. Jordan's Smoke & Stack, two twin brothers who've returned to their hometown to set up a juke joint. Over the course of the day, the twins split up to collect all of the necessary help they will need to pull of the grand opening later that night. This includes picking up their younger cousin Preacher Boy, who we met in the first moments of the film, Delroy Lindo's Delta Slim, Wunmi Mosaku's Annie, Omar Benson Miller's Cornbread, and the married couple of Bo Chow and Lisa Chow portrayed by Yao and Helena Hu. As a by product of their shenanigans, Stack attracts the attention of Mary, his octaroon ex lover who's also returned home to bury her mother. After a tense verbal standoff, she leaves Stack to continue his recruitment. I for one was a fan of the long intro and slow paced world building. I distinctly remember leaning over to my fiancé during the the IMAX screening, and whispering about how I didn't want the good times happening at the juke joint and all over the vibes that the SmokeStack twins had created to end. Unfortunately, for the characters at least, this is a movie and there must be conflict.

The aforementioned conflict is kicked off and primarily executed by the film's primary antagonist, Remmick, an ancient Irish vampire given life by the talented Jack O'Connell. Sinners' submits an original concept into the vampire canon with Remmick's hive-mind capabilities and desire for unity and belonging. Coogler keeps in line with a few traditional tropes however, such as the vampires cross a threshold without an invite, a weakness to silver and stakes in the heart, and a bite being the catalyst for transformation. O'Connell's Remmick is lured to the juke joint by the sound Preacher Boy's reality warping blues performance, and brings his newly minted, former klansmen, chiropteran compatriots.

It is during the our characters' time in Club Juke where we get the most out of the IMAX capabilities. From the cross-generational literal "burning of the house down" to the final confrontation, to one of the most jovial yet eerie musical numbers ever presented in a horror film, Ryan Coogler's deliberate expansion of the aspect ration in key moments is reminder of why audiences long for a return to the movie theaters. This doesn't even mention the nostalgic and deeply somber score crafted by the ever-impressive Ludwig Goransson. From the powerful brooding guitar that underscores the drama throughout the film to the impromptu soulful humming, this film almost plays like a musical. A musical set to one of the least covered yet most influential periods in American music history, the birth of the delta blues.

Ryan Coogler, Ludwig Goransson, Proximity Media, and Warner Bros. have given us a special treat with the release of "Sinners" and moviegoers are rewarding them. At the time of writing "Sinners" has earned over $160 million worldwide against an estimated $90 million budget, edging it closer to profitability. This is a great sign for a studio who chose to sign a life changing deal (final cut, first dollar gross, rights reversion, etc) to Coogler on an original script and IP. Here's to hoping this becomes closer to a standard than a one-off happy accident.

If you haven't seen it, please support "Sinners" in whatever premium format is available to you. You won't regret it.