Blessed Saturday!
As always welcome back to the Chapel of Honey. We meet you where you are, as you are, no judgement. Let me say it now: SPOILERS! If you haven’t seen Sinners yet it ain’t my fault, get to a theater!
Sinners. It wasn’t just a movie, it was a working. It’s a mojo. A recollection. I’m struggling to piece any sentences together because I am still reeling from the Service that it was. I am careful with movies, especially ancestral stories, because they catalyze me into living the moment. My being a living spirit house is a joke that ain’t a joke, everybody in my blood lineage awake and rejoicing, even the devils. Sinners didn’t tell a story, it pulled you into one and made you feel it with all your senses. The Griot of Griots blessed this endeavor, the Ancestors laid the hands of Memory on it every step of the way. For those with eyes and ears, it was an invitation. For some perhaps even a memory initiation, that first catalyst, the knock at the door to get your attention. As soon as the hum started, as soon as the first chord was struck, when the bare feet hit the floor…Delta Slim may have told a joke but never a lie, and when he said that we brought our own over here, he was right. If Eve’s Bayou made two or three things click, Sinners shot me through a Wonka-esque boat ride of my bloodline and energetic makeup. It felt like a thousand stories I’ve always known, like being in the car on a long drive through Ohio to get down south. It’s the memory of tobacco hanging to dry in Kentucky when I had never seen it before. Ancestral knowing is like that for me, separated by a car window as I move through the memories (save for the ones that break through to be wailed out). Sinners is for us in so many ways I can’t articulate it yet. From the truly gorgeous shots and evocative soundtrack to the casting and world building, it was perfect. As movies go, it’s a 12/10 and I already want to see it again soon.
Thoughts I want to share from my first watch, let me know what you think!
(Photo sourced here)
SPOILERS AFTER THIS POINT SO PLEASE GO SEE THE MOVIE AND STAY FOR END CREDIT SCENE THANK YOU
This is not going to be in any movie order of events, just a heads up
I actually have to credit my partner with this one: did they ever wash the floors? As soon as we left the theater that was his first question. “Did they wash the floors? Because you knew it was about to be a party and…” I hate to say I don’t recall the whole set up, there were so many moving pieces. But for my folk who know, you already know. How you in enemy territory and don’t got even a touch of protection on the floors and doors? But by this time folks were moving away from ancestral ways of protection, and we see this with the dialogue around Annie’s rootwork.
Remmick and his band of vampires represent white liberal centrist propaganda: Now this is just a semi funny/semi serious thought that came from the dialogue in the doorway. Remmick suggests that with his “family” the people of the Juke Joint, ie the Black and Asian people, would fit in. They would be heard, accepted, safe, would be in fellowship and love. The cost? Their culture, their family, their lives and joys. The Sun. The Sun is representative of life, goodness, vitality, strength, provision, daily and seasonal cycles. They were being offered a 90’s/2000’s colorblind family if only they would leave behind the truth and nature of themselves for the comfort of assimilation into bloodthirsty monsters.
Roots don’t stop everything, and Death always comes. How it comes you got a little say in. Smoke and Annie baby passed away before the story takes place, and upon his visit back to her he ask why the roots didn’t keep the baby safe. “I don’t know,” she tells him. But she also reminds him later, shortly before her death, that the baby waiting on her and on him too. When he does pass, we see Annie and the baby glowing, all in white, to meet him. This represents the peaceful transition of his family, and his peaceful going to them. He may have died violently but this was by choice, with knowledge and surrender, closing out debts that would have pursued his younger cousin. Something to note is that the mojo Smoke wore up until his own end actually delayed his brother’s attack. If you watch closely at Stack attacking Smoke, the root help create a barrier. I wonder did it help with a lil persuasion of protection as well?
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