IANA Blog- March 2026
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Happy March and Happy Women’s History Month.
This month is also the month of the Academy Awards aka The Oscars, where of course, the best films of the past year get celebrated, the actors and actresses get recognized for their performances, and the Best Picture award is on the line. This isn’t the first time I talk about the Oscars in the IANA Blog, I’ve talked about it before. One of the films nominated at this year’s Oscars was one of my favorite films of 2025…Sinners.
So for this month’s blog, I think you already know what I’m going to talk about for the topic…oh yeah, by the way…Spoiler Alert…if you haven’t watched the film yet and don’t want me to spoil the film, look away now.
Cool…a little bit about the film…
Sinners (2025) is a supernatural horror film, written and directed by African American filmmaker Ryan Coogler. Starring Michael B. Jordan aka Killmonger from Black Panther aka Adonis Creed from Creed. It also stars Hailee Steinfeld, Jack O’Connell, Jayme Lawson, up-and-coming musician Miles Caton (in his film debut), legendary Blues musician Buddy Guy, spoken word poet Saul Williams, veteran British actor Delroy Lindo and British Nigerian actress Wunmi Mosaku.
The film is set in the Mississippi Delta during the Jim Crow American South in 1932. Jordan plays dual roles as Elijah “Smoke” Moore and Elias “Stack” Moore aka The Smokestack Twins, two criminal twin brothers from Mississippi who return home after working for the Chicago mob. Using stolen mob money, they decide to buy a sawmill and turn it into a juke joint for the local Black community.
In the film, Mosaku portrays Annie Moore, Smoke’s estranged wife who is also a Hoodoo practitioner. Caton plays Sammie Moore, a sharecropper, an aspiring blues singer and cousin of the Smokestack twins. Lindo plays Delta Slim, a booze drinking harmonica player and legendary blues musician. Steinfeld plays Mary, Stack’s ex-girlfriend, who “passes” as White and has Black ancestry through her grandparents.
The juke joint successfully opens and is a hit on the opening night, unbeknownst to them along with guests in the juke joint, they will be visited by Remmick, played by O’Connell, an Irish vampire. Remmick finds himself seduced by the music of Sammie, and he along with Burt and Joan, two members of the Ku Klux Klan, who became vampires after being bitten by Remmick, stalk everyone in the juke joint. Remmick eventually turns most of the guests and people working in the juke joint into vampires, the first victim being Mary. Mary seduces Stack and turns him into a vampire. Luckily, Annie was able to figure it out and saved Smoke, Miles, Pearline (who was a married singer that Sammie was enamored with), Grace Chow (a Chinese store owner who knew the Smokestack twins), and Delta Slim from being turned into ones themselves.
Remmick, along with Stack and Mary, try to lure the survivors into becoming vampires and talk about how they have no “freedom” here in America. He even warns them about how the juke joint Smoke and Stack bought was actually a slaughterhouse, and used as a decoy for the Ku Klux Klan. Eventually, Smoke and the survivors find themselves fighting the vampires after Grace invites them in. The only survivors would be Smoke and Sammie, after Smoke stabs Remmick through his chest and Remmick along with other vampires burst into flames as the sun rises. As Sammie drives off to church, battered and bruised, to reunite with his father who is a strict pastor, Smoke stays behind to kill members of the Klan, including Hogwood, the man who sold him the slaughterhouse, and was actually the Grand Wizard of the Klan. As he kills them all, he catches a wound and dies peacefully as he makes it to the afterlife and reunites with his deceased baby and Annie, who told Smoke to stab her after she was bitten by Remmick. Sammie, who is told by his father to repent for his sins, instead drives off and fulfills his goal of being a legendary blues musician, as we see an older version of himself, who is also played by Buddy Guy. Older Sammie also reunites with Stack and Mary, who are still vampires and was told by Smoke to not kill Sammie, after he decided to not kill them.
After talking a little bit about Sinners, let’s talk about what I loved about the movie.
First off, I still remember watching the trailer months before it came out. I was excited. Was always a fan of Ryan Coogler. Yes, I'm hella biased, being from Oakland, just like Coogler. Was always a fan ever since he released Fruitvale Station, with Michael B. Jordan as well. I have watched all films that he has directed so far, Creed, Black Panther, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, so I was really excited to see Sinners, especially because I felt people only saw him as a director for only superhero films or “popcorn” films and because every year, I saw people whining about how they miss “original” films.
I remember the week it came out. Critics, film buffs and even Coogler suggested watching the film in IMAX, so I wanted to watch the film in my city’s legendary movie theater, the historical Grand Lake Theater. That was where my friends and I got to watch the premiere of Black Panther. Unfortunately, the tickets were sold out, but luckily I found another local theater in Oakland, the New Parkway Theater, which was packed.
After watching the film, I enjoyed it a lot. I left the theater telling myself to watch it again. I watched it again at Grand Lake another day. For one, it’s more than a horror film, it’s a horror/western/gangster/musical/action film. As Honest Trailers (YouTube channel which makes parody film trailers about movies) states, it’s like the vampire film “From Dusk Till Dawn, in the Jim Crow South,” or “Django Unchained with Vampires,” and honestly that’s what I felt when I watched both, as the movie From Dusk Till Dawn was also a vampire film with two criminals as the main characters battling vampires and I definitely felt Django Unchained vibes, especially with one of the final sequences in the film. There were so many things I enjoyed about the film. I can start with the scenes.
I can start with my favorite scene in the whole film. The scene where Sammie performs a song he wrote to the crowd, “I LIed To You,” which he dedicates to his preacher father. His music had everyone dancing. Then, we cut to Slim talking to Sammie about how Black people created blues music and it wasn’t forced on them like religion and how sacred and big it is. Then it cuts back to Sammie performing, everyone dancing and next thing we see is a time traveling sequence of Black musicians and dancers from different eras performing together. From a funk guitarist jamming on the electric guitar, to a DJ spinning records and a breakdancer, to an African drummer, to a woman twerking, to gangsters crip walking, to a Black ballet dancer. The scene finishes with the “roof being on fire” and ends with Remmick, Joan and Bert staring on. I was in awe watching that scene, watching different decades of Black art and music coming together. It made me continue to appreciate Black music, Black art and Black creativity. I also appreciated how Coogler mixed the whole diaspora into this scene with Africans and Black Americans, to show the connection we have.
There was also a Chinese Sun Wukong dancer, because as mentioned, one of the characters is Grace Chow and her husband Bo. I also liked showing the relationship between Black and Asian People in the South. It had me doing more research on Asian people living in Mississippi during that time, which I didn’t know much about compared to Asians living in the East Coast or the West Coast.
My second favorite scene in the film was the final shootout scene with Smoke and the KKK. I forgot to mention that Smoke and Stack were also World War I veterans before they were criminals. They also mentioned to Hogwood, the man that they bought the slaughterhouse from, that if they see him or any klansmen on their property, they’ll kill them. There was also a mention of guns, weapons and ammo in the movie when Smoke and Stack meet Remmick for the first time. After I found out Hogwood was a klansman, I wanted Smoke to kill his ass, which is what he did. Smoke pops out from the bushes and shoots down Hogwood and the klansmen, one by one, ending the shootout with killing klansmen trying to get away, with a grenade. Although he did get hit with a fatal gunshot wound in his stomach, at least he was able to reunite with Annie and his child we never got to see in the film. I loved every bit of that shootout scene, it literally gave me Django Unchained vibes, especially a scene where Django shoots and kills multiple henchmen of slave owner Calvin Candie in a scene after they mauled a slave named D’Artagnan, to dogs.
One of my favorite characters in this film is Annie. I also appreciate how Vodou/voodoo was portrayed in the film. For those that know about vodou/voodoo, it evolved from African Spirituality. I remember learning about the Ifa tradition and how it was one of the oldest religious practices to come out of Africa and how it was brought to other countries under different names such as Condomble (Brazil), Lukumi (Cuba), Santeria (Puerto Rico), Houdou (Haiti) and Vodou/Voodoo (US/Louisiana). Unfortunately, it was heavily demonized by the U.S. media, in films such as The Princess and the Frog, Scooby-Doo and pretty much in every zombie film. So, as mentioned I like how Vodou was portrayed in Sinners. I also liked how Annie was the first person to figure out that Stack and Mary were vampires and I loved the relationship between her and Smoke. She taught the survivors how to deal with vampires.
I liked the contrast between Smoke and Stack. Smoke wears Blue and Stack wears Red. Smoke is more stoic, grounded and serious while Stack is more charismatic, flamboyant and reckless. Even the way they interact with Sammie in the film. Stack is more friendly with Sammie, while Smoke is strict with him. It kinda makes sense as Stack and Smoke talk about the abusive relationship they had with their father, how their father had an “evil” reputation and how Smoke had to kill him in order to protect himself and Stack.
My other favorite character in the film is Delta Slim. As mentioned in the film, he mostly drinks a lot of booze. He might have been the funniest character in the entire film. I appreciated the humor he brought in the film, but also one scene that made me appreciate Slim was when he, Stack and Sammie were driving past a chain gang and he talked about how he knew those prisoners. He then told a story about how he and his old friend played Blues music and after they got money, he talked about how his friend used his half to build a church, but a racist White mob found him, stole his money and hanged him to death. It was a sad moment, but Slim then started stomping his feet and started humming and I just kept thinking, “That’s why they call it the Blues.”
Remmick is definitely one of my favorite horror movie villains. Very sympathetic in a way, but also had a lot of points in how you have more “freedom” as a vampire then you do in America, even though he was full of s**t, and wanted more than just Sammie’s music. I also liked how he was kinda getting his ass kicked throughout most of the film, especially at the beginning where he meets Joan and Bert. He was seen running away from Native American vampire hunters and he was badly beaten and burnt. I also liked how manipulative he was, convincing Joan and Bert to save him from the hunters after finding out they were part of the KKK, by calling them “dirty Indians.” He manipulated Grace to let him in after killing Bo, by threatening to kill her daughter Lisa. He also tried to use his Irish ancestry and the fact that the Irish also received discrimination just like Black people did as a reason to have them all become vampires. I also liked the scene where he was singing “Rocky Road to Dublin” and had all the vampires dancing with him.
I appreciate the themes included in the film. There were so many themes that you had to watch multiple times to fully understand the film. The themes included racial violence, cultural appropriation/exploitation and resilience, which makes sense, since this film is set in the Jim Crow South in the 1930s. The film uses vampires to symbolize the theft and exploitation of Black culture and music. Going back to the time traveling music scene, the scene ends with Remmick, Joan and Bert staring on. Remmick lets it be known that he wants Sammie’s music as a way to get back to where he came from, and that reminded me of how these White singers and music executives see Black music and take it and make it their own, without giving credit. The vampires also represented how White people seek to consume the joy and sanctuary of the Black community. There were themes of racial resilience, which represents the juke joint in which establishing a safe space for Black Joy is in ways a form of resilience and resistance against systemic oppression. Religion and spirituality is also a heavy theme in the film, as the film examines both. Sammie was supposed to read a sermon in church the day after hanging with Smoke and Stack, which upset his father. In some ways, he also reminded me of legendary Blues musician Robert Johnson, who sold his soul to the devil to be a great musician. There are also themes of family and brotherhood, as the story also focuses on the relationship between Smoke and Stack (brothers), but also the relationship with Smoke and Annie (husband and wife). As mentioned, the idea of “freedom” is a huge theme in the film. I saw themes of financial freedom as well, such as Smoke and Stack worried about not making enough money from the Juke Joint, or that having a lot of money will free you. Mary even mentioned that they robbed both sides of the mob, and had them blaming and fighting each other, so they weren’t definitely free from consequences, especially if both sides found out. It was also the talk about becoming a vampire that will free you from the racism and discrimination you experience in America. One of the bigger themes was music as legacy and power, in which music, especially Blues music and the guitar was a tool used to connect us with our ancestors and as a form of cultural memory.
That leads to the last thing I loved about the film…the music. I stayed listening to the soundtrack. The music was composed by musician, composer and record producer Ludwig Goransson, who is Coogler’s roommate in college at USC and is one of my favorite film composers today. Sinners helped me continue my appreciation for Blues music and how important Blues music is to American culture. Blues music is the root for modern music, period. Without Blues, there is no rock & roll, there is no Jazz, there is no R&B, no Soul, no Funk, no Disco, no Heavy Metal and definitely no Hip Hop. If you think about it, there’s possibly no Reggae, no Ska, no Afrobeat, no Afrobeats music without Blues music…and of course Blues music has roots from Africa as well, as West African musical traditions were brought to America by enslaved African people. As Chuck D from Public Enemy said it best, “We all come from the damn Blues.” I also liked seeing legendary Blues musician Buddy Guy have a role in the film, as an older Sammie, especially when he reunited with Stack and Mary who are still vampires and after Stack tries to convince him to be a vampire, he let it be known that he’s getting sick and tired of America at his age, knowing that he has definitely seen some things, living through the Civil Rights era and the Black Power era. I also enjoyed seeing him play the guitar in front of Stack and Mary for the last time.
Oh yeah, I can’t forget how quotable this film is and how unforgettable the dialogue is. So many quotes I enjoyed from Hogwood asking if Smoke and Stack asked if they’re twins and Stack sarcastically replied, “Nah, we’re cousins.” The conversation between Mary and Stack when they reunite since Stack left her.
Mary- “You know I waited for you.”
Stack- “S**t, I don’t know why the hell you did that.”
Mary- “Because you told me you loved me.”
Stack- “I also told you to stay the f**k away from me too, but I guess you didn’t hear that part huh.”
Mary- “I heard ya. I heard ya perfectly loud and clear, but then ya stuck ya tongue up my c**s and f**ked me so hard, I figured you changed your mind.”
Stack- “Keep your voice down!”
The whole theater was going nuts after hearing that. That’s one of the hilarious conversations I’ve seen in a while, along with Stack talking to Sammie comparing oral sex to ice cream, which led to Sammie making out with Pearline in the bathroom and him saying, “I just wanna taste you,” referring to performing oral sex on Pearline. It also led to Stack hearing them from outside the bathroom saying, “Boy found that button, didn’t he,” with a smirk on his face. There was also the whole back and forth with Cornbread, the sharecropper and bouncer for the Juke joint, who was bitten by Remmick and the vampires, and Smoke, Annie and Delta Slim. Cornbread asked to be let in and Annie asked him why can’t he just let himself in. Smoke doesn’t let him in, but before leaving Cornbread asks for his money. Smoke tries to give it to him, but Cornbread grabs his arm and attempts to bite him, but luckily Smoke shoots him and Annie shuts the door on him. Then, out of nowhere Slim hilariously says, “Y’all smell that? I think I shat myself.” Two of my other favorite quotes also appeared in the trailer. One of them is where Mary reveals herself to be a vampire, with an evil grin and blood all over her mouth, saying, “We gon kill every last one of ya.” Another one, which I felt perfectly fits the theme for the film, was from Sammie’s father, Jedediah. He said, “You keep dancing with the devil, one day he’s gonna follow you home.” But, my favorite quote of the film came near the end between Stack and Older Sammie. Sammie let Stack and Mary know that he would wake up paralyzed reliving that night, but before the sun went down, it was the best night of his life and he asked if it was the same for them. Stack replied, “No doubt about it. Last time I seen my brother, last time I seen the sun. And just for a few hours, we was free.” It then showed flashback scenes of the twins looking at the sunset, Stack dancing with Mary, Smoke dancing with Annie and Sammie playing his guitar and dancing with Pearline. That scene reminded me to always cherish the moments you have with the people you care about and also showed the closest thing the Smokestack twins had towards freedom.
That’s what I enjoyed about the film. As far as what I didn’t like about the film…I couldn’t really find anything I didn’t like. Maybe the constant use of jumpscares, which I always find cliche in a lot of modern horror movies, but I felt like the jumpscares were perfect for the film. I will say though, a scene where Stack and Mary (who is a vampire now) are making out, and she drools in his mouth after Stack notices she’s drooling. I always cringe at that part, but I get why that was in the film. Otherwise from that, I had nothing bad to say about the film.
Honestly, if anything I hated the discourse and the hot takes from people who didn’t like the film, especially from White people. I hate to sound bigoted, but the takes from White people who hated Sinners got on my damn nerves. It all started when Variety Magazine released a news article on Sinners, saying it needs to make a certain amount of money for it to be successful, which led to well deserved Backlash from people in the film industry. After reading that bulls**t article from Variety, I was pretty much done with reading Variety articles, after I found that article disrespectful as hell, especially since Sinners is a Black film. Luckily, I was also thinking, “Watch this film be successful at the box office and shut these haters up.” It did, as the film grossed over $370 million worldwide against a budget of $90-100 million. It wasn’t just Variety magazine, it was a bunch of people saying stupid things about Sinners. When looking online, I saw idiots including someone who was a White Latino called Sinners, a ripoff of From Dusk Till Dawn. Coogler has mentioned From Dusk Till Dawn being one of the movies that inspired Sinners, especially since they both involve Vampires, but they aren’t the same at all. I also saw too many people whine about how they hate “woke” movies and call Sinners a “woke” movie or call it a DEI movie and I’m just here thinking, “if you think that, you’re an idiot.” I just saw some idiot say that the film Sinners was “racist” towards White people, and that it was just “revenge porn against Whites,” and luckily other people called him out for such a stupid, racist response. Don’t get me started on White horror movie fans, saying it was a bad film or it was terrible and then I see what favorite horror films they like to watch.
Look, I’m not gonna tell you to like a movie or not, but looking at some of the awful takes I heard from people that didn’t like the film made me think that they didn’t understand the film, didn’t want to understand the film or just like to piss off Black people for stupid reasons with the s**t they say or write, they’re comfortable with their favorite films that have the “white savior” narrative, films that negatively stereotype Black people/people of color or films that only focus on them. Obviously not all White people were saying stupid or disrespectful things about the film, but the ones that were saying stupid things got on my nerves quickly. Luckily, I let it be known that I will never listen to White People’s negative opinions on certain Black films, such as Moonlight, Get Out, Black Panther, Do The Right Thing and most certainly, Sinners. Don’t get me started on what they had to say about Black Panther and Get Out, which is also one of my favorite horror films of all time. I could go on forever about that film just like I did with Sinners.
As mentioned, the Oscars was this Month, and Sinners made history with 16 nominations. It became the most nominated film in history. It would go on to win 4 Oscars, Best Original Screenplay for Ryan Coogler, Best Original Music for Ludwig Goransson, Best Cinematography for Autumn Durand Arkapaw, who made history as the first female cinematographer to win the award, also being the first Black person to win the award and the first woman of color to win the award (Arkapaw is of Black Creole and Filipina descent), and Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role for Michael B. Jordan. Jordan made history as the sixth Black actor to win the award. The others being Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington, Jamie Foxx, Forest Whitaker and Will Smith. Jordan goes on to bring up those winners in his speech, along with actress Halle Berry, who is the only Black actress or actress of Black ancestry to win Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role. Wunmi Mosaku also received a nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role while Delroy Lindo received a nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role. Goransson also received a nomination for Best Original Song for writing the song “I Lied to You,” along with legendary R&B and Soul Artist Raphael Saadiq.
The Oscar for Best Picture would go on to the film One Battle After Another, which stars actor Leonardo DiCaprio as a former revolutionary who springs back into action as his biracial daughter is being targeted by a ruthless military officer from his past. Although Sinners didn’t win Best Picture, the film still made history that night. I forgot to mention that Coogler would go on to be the second Black writer to win Best Original Screenplay, and I feel that this movie will be one of those Black films that Black people and others will remember for a long time. As mentioned, it is one of my favorite films of 2025, definitely my favorite vampire film, one of my favorite horror films of all time and a film that I will watch every chance I get.
What do you guys think of Sinners? Did you enjoy it or not? Did you watch it? If you didn’t watch it, why are you still reading this? Just kidding, kinda…I told you…Spoilers…but, really, let me know what you think.
Sinners- “I Lied to You” Music Scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OlFxQHdkiY
Honest Trailer- Sinners: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzA-eMq7Uzo
'Sinners' Wins Best Original Screenplay | 98th Oscars Speech (2026)
‘Sinners’ Wins Best Cinematography | 98th Oscars Speech (2026)
Michael B. Jordan Wins Best Actor | 98th Oscars Speech (2026)
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