TMW #45: Sinners, Warfare and Freaky Tales reviewed

Plus the must-watch trailers of the week

Good Friday? You betcha.

It’s sunny. It’s a bank holiday. You’re statistically likely to be gifted at least some chocolate over the weekend. What more could you ask for? Reviews of this week’s new releases, you say? We’ve got you covered…

Out this week is Ryan Coogler’s first non-Marvel movie in a decade, Sinners, which features even more Michael B. Jordan than Coogler’s previous films. Plus, Alex Garland teams with Iraq War veteran Ray Mendoza for the ultra-intense Warfare, and Pedro Pascal stars in anthology story Freaky Tales for directing duo Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck. One of these films is awarded the big five stars… Read on to find out which.

And below the paywall, we’ve got further recommendations from the Wingman team, including talking-point series, legit classics and new-to-streaming biggies. Plus, our regular weekly round-up of this week’s new must-see trailers, including fresh looks at The Life of Chuck, 28 Years Later, a Cumberbatch-Colman collab and The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

If you fancy becoming a fully fledged paying Wingman supporter, you can do so for as little as £5 per month (that’s barely more than a 270g pack of Cadbury Mini Eggs, and you know which will last longer).

And if you want to get into the Easter spirit, feel free to hit us with a like or share, or drop us a comment: we’d love know what you’re watching over the long weekend, be it a new release or an old favourite.

We’ll see you again on Tuesday, where we’ll report on any big news emerging from Tokyo’s Star Wars Celebration. Until then!

Matt (Jordan and Matthew)

Sinners

15, in cinemas now

⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Michael B. Jordan in Sinners (credit: Warner Bros)

Following the highs (Creed, Black Panther) and lows (Wakanda Forever) of his decade at the franchise coal face, writer/director Ryan Coogler has built a world of his own with Sinners – an original vampire movie set in the Jim Crow-era American South. Headlined by frequent collaborator Michael B. Jordan as twin brothers Smoke and Stack, it’s a peculiar blockbuster – part blues-infused character drama, part supernatural siege movie. But only half of that unwieldy equation fully works.

Opening with an unnecessary flash-forward that saps the question of who will survive of any tension, we’re introduced to gangster brothers the SmokeStack twins. They’ve returned from Chicago, where they worked for Al Capone, with a bag of cash and a dream: to open their own juke joint. Over the course of the day they get the band together, enlisting local musician Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo), cook Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), doorman Cornbread (Omar Benson Miller) and, most importantly, their cousin Sammie (newcomer Miles Caton), a blues prodigy whose music is ‘so true’ it has the capacity to ‘pierce the veil between life and death’.

This gift has an unfortunate side effect: it attracts the attention of Remmick (Jack O’Connell), a red-eyed vampire less interested in sucking blood than building a commune of undead equals. During a sweaty opening night, which Stack’s jilted ex Mary (Hailee Steinfeld) crashes, the blood starts to fly when Remmick and his rapidly growing legion arrive (uninvited, naturally) and lay siege to the New Juke.

As a Sayles-ian small-town character tapestry, Sinners soars. There’s a rich sense of lives lived, with complex histories elegantly unravelled as Smoke and Stack reacquaint themselves with the community they left behind seven years ago. Thematically dense (questions of race and socio-economic structures are on the surface), the texture of the world is evocative and beguiling. Composer Ludwig Göransson is a crucial part of the equation – blues music is Sinners’ lifeblood and powers the film’s best sequence, in which Sammie’s soulful performance opens the door to past and present.

Shot on 65mm film using IMAX and Ultra Panavision cameras to give it event-movie scope, and featuring standout work from several frequent Coogler collaborators (costume designer Ruth E. Carter, production designer Hannah Beachler), it frequently looks and sounds stunning. Performances are rock solid across the board, with Mosaku providing an emotional anchor that allows Jordan (as the more chaotic Stack) and O’Connell (as the crazy-eyed killer) to go big. But where it falls short is as a supernatural horror movie.

Taking the best part of 90 minutes to start the desanguination, when the fangs are finally unsheathed, it fails to get the blood pumping. Holding off the inevitable confrontation with a series of repetitive doorstep exchanges (vamps stick to the traditional rules here, including no stepping over a threshold without an invitation), there’s a disappointing lack of imagination in the way the film’s vamps are utilised. Though tonally in different worlds, From Dusk Till Dawn had much more fun with a similar premise.

That key character deaths don’t hit as hard as they should (some are confusing to the point that it’s not clear who is being slaughtered or staked) after such careful setup is a product of the final third’s failings. There’s also a touch of the Return of the Kings to Sinners’ closing moments, which puts an explosive button on an extraneous KKK subplot, and features the single most drawn out mid-credits scene in film history. Coogler evidently loves the world he’s built here, and with good reason, but a little more restraint would have gone a long way. (Jordan Farley)

IN SHORT: A less fun From Dusk Till Dawn with top-tier craft and character work. If the supernatural threat had any bite, this could have been something special.

STAY FOR THE END CREDITS? Yes. The mid-credits scene is a crucial coda. There’s also a second, less essential, post-credits scene if you just can’t get enough of the film’s tunes.

PICTURE PERFECT: Coogler recently appeared in a sincerely geeky video on Kodak’s YouTube channel about shooting on film, aspect ratios and the numerous formats that Sinners is releasing in. Collab with Tom Cruise when?

Warfare

15, in cinemas now

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Charles Melton (centre) in Warfare (credit: A24)

Having tackled a hypothetical conflict in last year’s Civil War, Alex Garland has teamed up with Iraq War veteran Ray Mendoza for a meticulously realistic look at a very precise moment of combat from recent history. Garland and Mendoza share writing and directing duties on a film that strips away overt politics and traditional narrative techniques to throw the audience into a suffocatingly intense real-time mission, based entirely on the memories of the American Navy SEALs who were there in November 2006 (including Mendoza, played here by D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai). If you’re expecting character arcs, gung-ho heroism or historical context, forget it. Warfare is only interested in embedding you with this platoon, and keeping you with them in this very restricted location, as the platoon, their two Iraqi scouts and two Marines settle into a residential building on what should be a surveillance mission, before they come under insurgent fire.

A cast of rising stars including Joseph Quinn, Cosmo Jarvis, Will Poulter, Charles Melton and more give the impression this could be a lightning-in-a-bottle ensemble that’ll be dominating the industry over the next decade, reminiscent of Black Hawk Down’s breakout players. (The verisimilitude almost risks being cracked by the fact this outrageously good-looking unit could’ve just stumbled in from an Abercrombie & Fitch shoot.) It’s only 96 mins, but you’ll be grateful it isn’t any longer, such is the sustained tension and the sensory assault (particularly in the pummelling sound design). It’s a film you experience rather than enjoy, but as a piece of immersive cinema, it’s impossible not to admire it. (Matt Maytum)

EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT: After retiring from the Navy, Mendoza worked in Hollywood as a stunt coordinator, with a particular focus on gunfights. On Civil War he was a consultant advising Garland on the battle scenes, including the final White House sequence.

Freaky Tales

15, in cinemas now

⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Dominique Thorne and Normani in Freaky Tales (credit: Lionsgate)

Though very much set in 1987 - cue squidgy synths, VHS static and references to The Lost Boys - Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s anthology rocks a distinctly 90s vibe. One obvious touchstone is Pulp Fiction, from the criss-crossing characters and replays of events from different POVs to the vengeful use of samurai swords. Though Freaky Tales isn’t quite freaky enough to feel like a worthy successor to Tarantino’s Palme d’Or-winner, it makes for a fun, kinetic couple of hours in the grindhouse.

Its four tales are set in Oakland, where a glowing green substance is having a weird effect on some of the locals. Though that’s not something you need to worry too much about: Boden/Fleck (Half Nelson, Captain Marvel) lean less into sci-fi or the supernatural than street-level drama, setting out their stall with a vicious attack by neo-Nazis on a community of liberal punks, who then regroup in rousing style. Payback is a key theme; it’s dished out with cartoonish gusto in the final chapter (where Jay Ellis’ basketball star goes on a rip-roaring rampage) and explored with more nuance in Tale 3, about a hitman (a soulful Pedro Pascal) taking stock of his history of violence.

All the stories have memorable moments - an A-list cameo here, an exploding head a la Cronenberg there - but it’s Tale 2 that feels the most self-contained and fully rounded. Ironically, it’s also the most grounded of the bunch, involving poetic justice rather than anything messier, as two aspiring rappers (played by singer-turned-actor Normani and Wakanda Forever/Ironheart’s Dominique Thorne) get their moment in the spotlight. Scrappy, witty and propelled by great chemistry (on the mic and off), it’s a segment that bypasses the Tarantino nods, instead harking back to the filmmakers’ character-driven indie roots. (Matthew Leyland)

STAY FOR THE END CREDITS? Yes - not for any twists in the Tales, but for a blooper (making the most of that A-lister) and some head-spinning breakdancing.