Do you have to agree with a film’s politics to enjoy it? I don’t think so

There is some hope again for the American box office.

It’s certainly not coming from the Marvel Universe, whose box office doesn't cover their production and marketing costs. Instead, that idiot Minecraft film did amazing business because it targeted an underserved audience.

Another film, one that dominated the last two weeks and continues to do well, did so by using an odd new approach: telling a new story well.

It’s so crazy, it just might work.

Sinners is an R-rated vampire film, written and directed by Ryan Coogler (Creed, Black Panther). The film is set in the South in 1932. Twin brothers, “Smoke” and “Stack” (both characters played, well, by Michael B. Jordan), have a dream of starting their own “Juke,” a honky-tonk for blacks only.

The brothers have a colorful history. They served in the Army in World War I and then served in Al Capone’s army in Chicago. They’ve put enough money away to buy an old mill that they hope to make into their nightclub, but the former mill owner is a Grand Dragon of the KKK. He wants to take his mill back by force.

Which turns out to be the least of the brothers’ problems.

Vampires don’t show up in the film for nearly an hour, but when they do, they provide a unique and unnerving presence.

I’ve already spoiled enough, so I won’t spoil more. If you like this kind of film, you’ll enjoy Sinners. I should note, though, that the film could almost be considered a musical for the way it utilizes Blues, Gospel, Folk, and even some Gaelic music.

That said, I’d like to talk a bit about the film’s theology and politics. It’s rather “woke,” but for me, that doesn’t kill the film because the message serves the story, rather than the story being at the service of the message.

The real protagonist of the film is Sammie (Miles Caton), the son of a preacher who is also a savant with Blues music. He’s a singer and guitar player, but his father wants him to stay home and play his music in the church. He wants to play at his cousins’ honky-tonk. An old Blues piano player, Slim (Delroy Lindo), supports his choice. Slim badmouths the White man’s religion (Christianity), which he says was “forced upon” Black slaves. He urges Sammie to pursue the music that is true to their African tradition.

This idea of Christian culture and traditional African cultures (exemplified through music) being in opposition is stupid in so many ways.

Yes, there were slave owners who hoped their slaves would be pacified by Christianity, but there were also slave owners who refused to allow slaves to learn to read the Bible and tried to keep slaves from having access to the full Gospel.

In spite of both attempts to restrict them, slaves identified with the Jewish slaves in Egypt and the Exodus in the Bible gave slaves hope of freedom. The abolition movement was a Christian movement. Before Christianity, slavery was assumed to be a natural part of the human condition. Slavery was once practiced in every culture, including African culture.

There is also an unspoken assumption that Christianity is European, the white man’s religion. But Christianity actually took hold in parts of Africa long before it came to England. Ethiopia adopted Christianity in the 4th century; England didn’t adopt Christianity until the 6th century.

Even sillier is the idea that the music of African Americans of the 1930s was all their own, unspoiled by European Americans. In the film, Sammie has guitar skills that are perhaps of a supernatural nature, capable of bringing forth musicians of his cultural past (and future). But the guitar he plays doesn’t have its roots in Africa. The guitar probably has its origins in Spain in the 12th century. Once slaves came to America, their music took on qualities of European American music, which was in turn influenced by African American music.

The film seems to advocate the benefits of segregation. Smoke and Stack want to have a Juke free of the White man. On the other hand, the chief vampire, Remmick (Jack O’Connell), advocates the brotherhood of man. He claims that all will be equal as vampires, Black and White. In some ways, he sounds like a Great Society Liberal. Like Jordan Peele’s Get Out, there seems to be an argument that the platitudes of White Liberals are not to be trusted. The vampires of the film even maintain some of their “Christian” past. They happily recite the Lord’s Prayer along with Sammie. (But strangely, “Holy Water” can still be used against them, which makes no sense.)

This Black separatism is a doctrine of much modern Leftism and is at odds with the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and the teaching of men like the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. This is why modern universities look to provide separate dining tables, dorms, holidays, etc., to ethnic students. Many modern Leftists have embraced the old doctrine of “Separate but Equal.”

I think there are benefits of seeing an artistic presentation of such views – false views, I believe – in creative and entertaining ways, opening doors for discussion. This is a film worth seeing, even though some of the premises on which it is based are false.

(And if you do decide to see this film, know that the story is not done when the credits begin. Unlike Marvel films, this post-credits sequence is not a commercial for an upcoming film, but rather tells more of this film’s story. So stick around.)