Copyright decider
It’s been six months since I first saw Ryan Coogler‘s Sinners and I still can’t stop thinking about the moment Hailee Steinfeld spits in Michael B. Jordan‘s mouth. Sinners is a sensual, scary film about music, monsters, and the magic of human connection. Set in 1930s Mississippi, the film follows twins “Smoke” and “Stack” — both played by Michael B. Jordan — as they return to their small home town with the hopes of opening a juke joint for the local Black community. The brothers have spent years working as gangsters in Chicago and see their enterprise as the fulfillment of a dream. The brothers have also left two women, the loves of their lives, back in the South, and find themselves reunited with them the day they plan to open their club. Sinners is a complex film that defies categorization. It’s a horror film, populated by lonely vampires obsessed with converting people into their collective. It’s a musical, featuring the spectacular on-screen debut of actor/musician Miles Caton. It’s also, emphatically, a romance. Smoke reconnects with his beloved wife Annie (Wunmi Mosaku) years after their infant daughter’s tragic death with a scintillating sex scene during the day. However, it’s Stack’s nighttime romp with former flame Mary (Hailee Steinfeld) that has stuck with me for months. Part of that is thanks to its impact on the rest of the film and part of it is just the pure thrill of getting to watch one of America’s sweethearts spit into a Hollywood hunk’s mouth. Sinners is also a film about the disgusting ways in which racism grinds people down over generations. We learn that Stack broke off his relationship with Mary not because he didn’t love her, but because he wanted to protect her. Mary is white-passing, which means she is “safer” if she can exist as in white communities at this time. It’s a situation that galls Mary and eventually, ironically, spells her doom. Mary insists on attending the juke joint’s opening, where Stack finally admits that he does love her. The two dance together to Sammie’s (Miles Caton) intoxicating music. The music is so powerful that it draws the attention of Irish vampire Remmick (Jack O’Connell) and his new acolytes. The trio, all white, attempt to charm their way into the joint with their own folk music, but are barred entry. Mary, however, argues that they need their money to keep the club afloat and volunteers to talk to them. When Mary returns, she has already been transformed into a vampire. She immediately comes on to Stack, kissing him on the dance floor before initiating sex. Mary’s sexual desire is expressed like that of a traditional male vampire. She hungers for Stack’s flesh. Her mouth clamps onto his neck. Her tongue licks his skin. Soon, Stack notices that she’s drooling. “Want some?” Mary asks. And then it happens. Vampire Hailee Steinfeld spits in Michael B. Jordan’s open mouth. And it’s great. Something about the act of spitting weaponizes saliva in a way kissing alone simply does not. Because if you think about it, Mary’s spit is already all over Stack’s mouth. She’s been kissing and licking him for a few good minutes now. It’s not like she hasn’t been literally drooling over him this entire time. But spitting is forceful. Spitting is aggressive. Spitting is coarse, base, and undeniably erotic. It’s Mary taking control of her desire and Stack accepting their love. What happens next is inevitable. One minute, Sammie walks in on Mary on top of Stack, their bodies locked together in their own private rhythm. However, when Smoke enters shortly after, it’s an entirely different scene. Mary is gorging herself on Stack. Blood is everywhere. Teeth have broken skin. Stack’s neck has been torn open. Smoke wastes no time reacting, shooting Mary multiple times only for her to rise again, laughing, “We gonna kill every last one of you.” From then on the film descends into horror. One by one, humans are picked off and transformed into vampires linked together by Remmick’s desire to reclaim the music of his past and the community he lost. Sammie and Smoke survive the monsters, but Smoke falls fighting a band of Klansmen who have ambushed the club in the cold light of day. The final moments of Sinners reveal that Smoke let Stack and Mary live past that bloody night. They have spent decades together in the shadows, unable to see the sun, but forever intertwined. It’s a darkly romantic ending that imparts a glimmer of hope. At least as vampires, Stack and Mary can be together. As literal creatures of the night, they have eternity to get down and dirty and busy with each other. And hopefully, Mary has spit in Stack’s mouth again.
