Ryan Coogler's Sinners may be a vampire horror but beneath all the bloodshed, it's a bold, heartwrenching love letter to Black community and the transcendental power of music. No other scene in the movie showcases that so completely as the one around an hour in, where Miles Caton's Sammie 'Preacher Boy' Moore picks up his guitar during the opening night of Smoke and Stack's new juke joint outside Clarksdale in 1930s Mississippi.
Set to Raphaael Saddiq and Ludwig Goransson's now-Golden Globe-nominated track 'I Lied to You', the electric sequence opens on Sammie, before switching between the grooving guests and Delroy Lindo's booze-loving Blues legend Delta Slim tickling the ivories in the back. As Sammie shuts his eyes and plays on, Coogler switches from standard widescreen to an IMAX-friendly 1.43:1 aspect ratio – and invites viewers into the sweaty, spirited soirée.
