On Sinners and Saints
Some thoughts on Ryan Coogler’s masterpiece Sinners movie; plus, re-visiting the divine drip of Jude Law’s Young Pope
Hiya, welcome back to Loose Buttons. I’ve been offline getting my soul back during a busy month at work. This past weekend was glorious – I saw Amy Sherald’s “American Sublime” exhibit at The Whitney (more on that in a later post), got a haircut, and was lucky enough to snag some of the last tickets1 to see Ryan Coogler’s movie, Sinners, in 70mm iMax at the AMC Lincoln Loews in Columbus Circle.2
And holy hell. It was a transcendent movie-going experience – maybe the best I’ve had since Avengers: End Game on opening weekend. The cinematography, the story, music, costumes – and Michael B. Jordan in dual roles * chef’s kiss.* I’ll be thinking about it a lot I’m sure over the coming weeks (and maybe writing about the fashion more in-depth), but here were my initial thoughts … (some spoilers below - if you’d like to skip until you see the movie, feel free to scroll until you see Jude Law wink at you, or use the lefthand navigation to the next section on The Young Pope).
Some thoughts on Sinners
The premise
This movie is hard to describe, because it defies genres. It’s a period drama about two twins, Smoke and Stack (both played by Michael B. Jordan), who summon their guitar-playing cousin Sammie/Preacher Boy (Miles Caton), to open a juke joint club in their 1930s Mississippi hometown. As they rally their community and supplies, vampires in the bodies of local white people decide to prey on them, and the club’s opening night might be everyone’s last night on Earth. It’s a period piece, it’s horror, it’s got killer music!
The music was otherworldly.
Miles Caton’s performance was incredible, and I definitely cried a little during the scene when Sammie/Preacher Boy’s song conjures spirits from the past and future. Jessica Clemons of New Rockstars has a great breakdown of this scene, pointing out how everyone in the room brings in their own ancestors and descendants, with beats changing as the camera moves through the reveling dance floor. This includes a Zulu dancer moving like Pearline, a Bootsy Collins guitarist jamming next to Preacher Boy, and a Chinese opera dancer floats past Grace. Do check out the official playlist for the movie here.
The diversity in Jim Crow South.
The movie takes place in October 1932 in Clarkesdale, Mississippi. As a biracial Asian-American woman who bounced around the South for half my life, I really appreciate the nuance around race in this movie, since the region is not a monolith, and its rich history of immigration is not often depicted in period films. The movie focuses primarily on the Black community of Clarkesdale, and the African diasporic traditions of Wunmi Mosaku’s Annie are shown through Hoodoo and spiritual folklore. You also see more of the Southern Black lineage during the music and dance scenes that combine African dancing, gospel, blues, and hip hop. There’s the Chinese immigrant family of Bo and Grace Chow, running a grocery store, mirroring the real-life Chinese migration post-Civil War. There’s the Irish vampire Remmick, which speaks to the Irish migration to the South that spanned centuries. There’s indigenous Choctaw vampire hunters warning white folks of the dangerous presence nearby (and The Root argues how Remmick crosses paths with the tribe would be worthy of exploration on its own). Besides the vampires, there’s the underlying presence of the Klan, who sold the twins the sawmill and were planning to kill all the Black people in attendance that night. The friendships, tensions, and overlapping desires of these various groups are fascinating to watch set against the era.
The devil and appropriation.
The idea of turning over to the devil’s temptations was part of the imagery of this movie. I kept thinking about the fiddle duel in the song “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” when Sammie’s preacher father warns him about bringing the devil home with him, and later when the vampire Remmick reveals he is after Sammie’s musical talents. And of course, with the race element involved, it mirrors the cultural appropriation of Black music, dance, and styles. Jamie Broadnax at Black Girl Nerds had a great column on these points:
“The twins wanted to open a juke joint only for it to be destroyed by these white vampires. The destruction of Black entrepreneurship. You can easily draw this parallel to the destruction of Black business from white supremacists during the 1921 Tulsa race massacre. Then there is cultural appropriation. The fact that the idea of a vampire in and of itself is a metaphor for how historically white people have appropriated Black culture is kind of genius. The act of sucking the life and livelihood of our culture, music, our trends, and our ways for their own profit and gain. I think of the days of Elvis Presley taking credit for music from Black artists. Vampires literally suck the blood of its victims and steal their livelihoods. Meanwhile the victim becomes a shell of their former selves.”
The limits of allyship.
I want to reflect on this a bit more, but one of the biggest takeaways I had was that this story could be an allegory for the limits of multi-racial allyship, and the tragedies that follow in survival mode. Some examples:
The disbandment of community during the vampire attack scenes (had everyone stayed inside the juke joint, they may have had a better chance at survival);
Hailee Steinfeld’s Mary going alone to talk to the white singers (secret vampires), who she thinks aren’t a threat to her due to her perceived whiteness.3 But they kill Mary and weaponize her to prey on the juke joint’s Black patrons;
Li Jun Li’s character, Grace Chow, increasingly agitated by the vampires threatening to attack her daughter, invites them in, despite other Black characters trying to keep her (and themselves) safe;
Jack O’Connell’s Irish vampire, Remmick, promises safety and purpose to the remaining Black partygoers, leaning into a message of “fellowship and love,” but ultimately it’s an empty promise (dying and becoming a riverdancing vampire lol). The Wrap has a good summary about the complexities of Irish oppression, marginalization, and using whiteness as a power in Remmick’s character.
Anyway, these are my initial thoughts – I’m sure I’ll have more to say later on, but I really enjoyed this movie! Curious if you’re planning to see it, have seen it – what are your thoughts?
Further reading:
Loved this review - “Coogler offers a true synthesis between serious-minded fiction and B-movie camp” | Pitchfork
An interview with the Black Magic consultant on this movie, and bringing Annie’s Hoodoo beliefs to life | Religious Dispatches
Sinners honored juke joints, but today they’re struggling to stay open | Capital B News
The symbolism of Remmick goes back centuries | Collider
An interview with the actor Yao (Bo Chow) and bringing Asian heritage to the film | Straits Times
The Young Pope’s divine drip
Switching over to another work rooted in good vs evil …
Pope Francis died last week, and as such, people will be interested in the intrigue of finding a new Pope,4 and potentially Vatican-related media. Conclave is re-trending, and there’s other recent movies that are full of theological debates (The Two Popes) or thrill chases around Rome (Angels & Demons).5 Plus, we’ll always have that one Met Gala.
But as an atheist ex-Catholic with a love for egg tempera paintings and embroidered frippery, I’d like to throw in a Papal tiara for a silly/serious/horny recommendation: The Young Pope. Not only for the grandiose visual feast of costumes and interior design, but also the morally grey characters of the Pope and his inner circle of cardinals.
The Young Pope asks the questions that *no one* was thinking about — can the pope be hot? And can beauty be wielded as a form of power?
Created by Paolo Sorrentino, this show depicts a sensuous view of beauty, religion, and power. You can get a sense of the balance of these elements in all the opening montages (1,2,3). Jude Law’s pope (street name Lenny Belardo, later Pope Pius XIII), initially presents himself as a humble, but politically opaque servant of God. Because he’s young and attractive, people are excited that he might lead the Church into a more accepting era. But as time goes on, Lenny reveals his radically conservative Christianity, and taste for the finer beauties of papal fashion.6 He eviscerates the modern papacy’s openness with the public. “I have no idea what to do with the friendship of the whole wide world,” he says with disgust to his cardinals. And yet there are some, including Diane Keaton’s Sister Mary, who believe he is worthy of sainthood.
Watching him shift in the fearful insecurity of Lenny the man, to the megalomania of Pope Pius XIII is fascinating and horrifying. And it’s interesting to watch his leadership evolve, and the power struggle between him and the Vatican clergy. Side characters like the progressive Cardinal Voiello become other reasons to watch (the follow-up season, retitled The New Pope, loses some plot momentum for me but it is still a pretty stylish show to watch).
The show is also just very interesting in other choices – cinematography, clothing, interiors, and even music. They managed to reconstruct the Vatican, including a convincing Sistine Chapel (something The Two Popes and Conclave recently did as well).
The show is also very horny — it balances sexual repression and reverence (again - here are two of the opening credits sequences - 2,3). The camera also makes good use of Jude Law’s looks. Sorrentino mused on this in an interview for Vulture about the followup season, The New Pope (bold emphasis mine):
“The beauty of Jude was very helpful for the character because the quintessence of beauty as pope was something, not provocative, but unpredictable,” Sorrentino says. “Beauty is something that changes the relationship between the pope and all the people around. All the men, all the women. [It] puts the people in a different condition.” Read in another light, Sorrentino’s shows are a meditation on stan culture and beauty as a social force. We are sad, simple creatures in its presence, reflexively equating looks with a moral good. Sorrentino can find only the Italian word for it: soggezione, translated as “awe.”
“For me, when I meet a man or a woman who is beautiful, I have a sort of strange, instinctive respect,” he says with a shrug. “I don’t know why. I have problems.” And beauty combined with political power of the highest religious magnitude? We tremble, we weep.”
Some top Jude Law Pope outfits, compared with real-life popes:
The everyday white cassock
On The Young Pope, Jude Law wears a cassock, a long white gown that’s worn when the pope is not celebrating religious services. According to Beliefnet, the word is derived from Middle French, meaning ‘long coat,’ and became part of clergy fashion in the 17th century (though the pope is the main wearer of it today). Other symbolism includes the color white, which depicts his purity, and there are 33 buttons, symbolizing the age of Jesus before he died. He also wears a saturno, a straw hat named for Saturn and its rings. Series costumer Carlo Poggioli told Vulture the tailoring for the cassock had to be perfect:
“There are some very specific complicated rules to follow when you tailor these cassocks,” he explains. “First of all, you have to use the real fabrics actually used for popes, cardinals etc., because they have to fall in a certain way, the color has to be right, so they have to be absolutely faithful to the originals! The wrist has to have a particular height, the belt a particular proportion, the pockets have to be well hidden, and so on.”
Papal regalia
During ceremonial moments, Lenny is dressed in papal regalia, including a mantum, or long embroidered cloak. While real-life popes usually wear mantums with colors to correspond with the liturgical calendar, Lenny’s is red, inspired by medieval church attire. He also wears a papal tiara, which in real life has not been worn since Pope Paul VI (though there are several papal tiaras in existence). According to Town & Country, the show reconstructed many of the jewels and ornaments, working closely with workshops and tailors that supply clothing to Vatican clergy.
The tracksuit
During his off-duty moments, Lenny dons a cashmere tracksuit by La Perla. It allows him to blend in when he takes in the sights of Rome. In reality, popes usually continue to wear a cassock in their down time, though their personal touches (such as Francis’ overcoat and Benedict’s baseball cap) have brought them sartorial acclaim.7 Even so, Pope Francis was known for eschewing papal finery and wanting his clothes to be easy. One Vatican tailor talked about keeping up with the ‘papal athleisure’: “Now with Pope Francis’s direction, people want things that are much lighter, simpler and more sober…. and consequently less expensive.”
The transition to a new pope is a delicate time, and invites us to imagine other transitions of power, Massimo Faggioli wrote in 2017 for Commonwealth Magazine:
“Thus some viewers might see in The Young Pope parallels between the election of Lenny Bernardo to the papacy and that of Donald Trump to the presidency. The Young Pope depicts what happens when the newly elected decides to break with traditional modes and etiquette of communication; abandons custom regarding visibility, accessibility, and adherence to previous norms; and wields a power that seems supreme, unique, and terrifying.”
It will be interesting to see which way the Conclave leans for the next pope — how this person’s sartorial choices will symbolize his religious philosophy, and impact the cottage industry of Vatican sartorial suppliers.
Further Reading:
Some imagined runway looks for Jude Law’s Young Pope. Love the Ave Maria sweater | W Magazine
For you architect lovers - Pope Francis put Antoni Gaudi on the path to sainthood | NY Times (gift link)
A theologian POV on The Young Pope | Commonwealth Mag
That Pope Francis streetwear meme | GQ
When Patricia Lockwood met the Pope. “Everyone is giving him things. This, to me, seems crazy. Why would you give something to the pope? He has like four things, and one of them is God.” | London Review of Books
Some thoughts on the Conclave’s next choice | Kaya Oakes
When I say last tickets, I mean there were literally only a couple front-row seats left. Luckily I was in row E, but with that 70-foot tall screen anything closer means neck cramps lol
The theater immortalized in You’ve Got Mail, the Lazy Sunday SNL Digital Short, and this beautiful column about it
Though she appears white, she has a half-Black grandfather, and she socializes with/considers herself part of the Black community
American politics is currently influenced by a far-right interpretation of Catholicism, much to the rebuke of the recently-deceased Pope, but alas for my sanity this newsletter will not go down that rabbit hole.
I’m not really a fan of The Da Vinci Code series (as this John Oliver clip attests, it’s a riddle that pats itself on the back for two hours), but actually enjoyed the third installment Inferno as part of my location research for my Florence trip.
Esquire even named Pope Francis their Best Dressed Man of 2013, and Pope Benedict was praised for bringing the papacy back to traditional, baroque fashion after years of the Vatican II’s simplified, modern sartorialism.
JoAnn I love the bits about the Young Pope (haven’t watched Sinners yet, saving this for afterwards). What do you think of the New Pope, if you’ve watched it? i am, like you, an atheist (or agnostic? idk) lapsed catholic, and i love connecting with like minded people on these cultural pieces, especially in the wake of Pope Francis dying.