You can now watch my review of Sinners with Richard Hanania.
Some topics covered:
The vampires pitch equality to the black juke joint owners; whether the vampires represent colorblind liberalism or something else
Parallels to Get Out (2017), where polite liberal language serves as a mask for sinister motives
All the cultural tropes/stereotypes. Chinese characters with the monkey king, Native Americans with supernatural magic tracking skills, Irish jig dancing villains, black women using hoodoo magic
We note the total absence of sympathetic white characters. And the complexity of the Irish immigrant character Remmick
Whether the film merits the buzz around it
Was Chicago in 1932 as racist as the Jim Crow south?
The Asian married couple who operate two convenience stores in Mississippi. Both husband and wife speak with Southern American accents; I question whether such a couple could actually have existed in the 1930s
Suspension of disbelief — “oh you’ll accept that vampires exist but not a Chinese American couple in 1932 with flawless Mississippian accents”
When sophisticated audience members are given permission to be enthusiastic about depictions of traditional masculinity and frontier justice
Thoughts on the history of black families in America
The frequent references in Sinners to men performing cunnilingus on women
Whether the film portrays gender relations of the era as accurately as it does race relations
How modern films often portray male sexuality in a very curated way
How the turning point of the Sinners comes when the Asian woman invites the vampires into the juke joint; consistent with a long tradition where female characters act as gateways between the ordinary and supernatural worlds (more on this point here). I also wonder whether the decision to have the Asian woman invite the vampires in has any symbolic meaning
The actor playing Hogwood (the KKK Grand Dragon) has Spanish roots; we discuss whether this would actually be possible and exchange thoughts on anti-Catholic sentiment of the era
A “highbrow reaction video” where instead of reacting to clips, we read and react to written reviews of the film
As we live react to written reviews of the film, we complain about banner ads on media websites and note that Substack has a cleaner user interface
Join me for my next live video in the app.
