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Ahead of the Curve with Coco Mocoe
The True Story Behind the Irish–Choctaw Bond Explored in "Sinners" by Ryan Coogler
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Coco Moko
Ryan Coogler's Sinners was a box office uphill battle. Go to any theater near you in the past five years and you might notice that almost every single movie being heavily promoted is from an existing franchise. From Marvel to Wicked to Disney to Minecraft. I've talked about it in prior episodes, but I think we're seeing the pendulum of culture swing due to what I'm calling franchise fatigue. One of the breaking points for me was the Mean Girls remake. While I thought the movie was quite good for how low my expectations were, it was hard to see Hollywood try to fix what wasn't broken over. Investing in new storytellers and IP Oppenheimer helped move the needle of new storytelling at the box office last year when it grossed $976 million globally. Although one may argue that director Christopher Nolan has become a franchise himself, another original IP win would be Jordan Peele's Note movie in 2022. The movie achieved worldwide box office success, approximately making $171 million with 123 million from domestic earnings alone, according to a Wikipedia Profit is particularly notable as Nope is an original non franchise film, a rarity in an industry often dominated by sequels and established intellectual properties. Strong box office showing underscores the audience's appetite for fresh, innovative storytelling, especially at a time when output of Marvel IP and Disney IP and remakes and this and that is at an all time high. And boy was that hunger fed this weekend with the new movie by Ryan Coogler, Sinners, which is what we're going to be talking about today. I drafted a couple versions of this episode and what really stuck with me though was talking about the kind of intertwining of the Irish, the Choctaw Natives, and the black Americans throughout this story that he uses in multiple points points and the history there is really fascinating. I myself am Irish. I'm like almost 100 Irish, both sides of my family, even though we've lived in America for a couple generations now. But it's something I really identify with and I even spent a year learning Irish Gaelic on Duolingo last year. So I did a entire 365 day streak doing that. But back to Sinners. If you think about the movie Sinners, it goes against everything that the franchise formula stands for. The franchise formula is a way for movie studios to maximize profits and minimize risk. It typically revolves around established intellectual property. Think comic books, novels, video games or reboots of nostalgic classics. And it follows a predictable build a cinematic universe, cast bankable stars, tease sequels before the film even ends, and then merchandise everything from action figures to Happy meals to popcorn buckets. These films often rely on global box office. They have heavy VFX and strategic release windows like summer or holidays, and while it's very effective financially of not faulting them, the formula can lead to a creative stagnation and a sacrifice of long term longevity for these studios over short term. ROI when listening to an interview from director Ryan Coogler by Indiewire, I am paraphrasing, but he said that the movie was hard to describe. Instead you had to just see it to understand what he was trying to express was the opposite of Oxum's razor, which is the simplest answer is always the correct one. Instead, Coogler created a historical horror film, maybe a new genre in itself that had really never been done before. It was parts musical, parts horror, parts suspense, parts historical, parts Western. Even when I was scripting this episode, I wasn't really sure how to explain explain the movie to someone who hasn't seen it. But that's what makes it so powerful to me is that it's unpredictable. I couldn't put it into a box sinners currently has 98% on Rotten Tomatoes as it ends its first box office weekend. It is the only horror film in almost 40 years to get an A rating on CinemaScore. CinemaScore isn't from highbrow critics, but rather it gathers its rankings by surveying opening night moviegoers across the US asking them to grade films from an A to an F scale, which is then averaged into a final score really reflecting real audience reactions, not critic reviews. And it's the highest grossing original IP in an opening weekend for a box office movie since the pandemic, which was US by Jordan Peele in 2019. Before I get further into my analysis of Sinners, I'm going to give you a spoiler free description of the movie for those of you who haven't seen it. But I'm giving you the assignment. You have to go see it and you have to do it in theaters. Sinners doesn't captivate you because it's a horror film, but rather because it has something deeper to say if you're reading between the lines. Set in 1932 in Mississippi, it follows twin brothers Smoke and Stack, both played by Michael B. Jordan, who come home from war and try to rebuild their lives and look for freedom outside of oppression by opening up a juke joint with their cousin, a blues musician played by Miles Cayton, while the twin brother Smoke and Stack come from a background of war and part time crime in Chicago. Not even they have the street smarts to really understand the true danger that comes lurking in the night. Now that I've got that quick free kind of spoiler free description out of the way, I'm now going to dive into my analysis. But I also want to add that I'm a white woman and a lot of this movie is about culture vultures and what happens when people of color lose their magic via people who are enticed by it and want to profit from it. So with that I want to add that there are so many great creators who I think voices are so much more important than mine, especially when reporting on this movie. So take my perspective with a grain of salt, but listen to the ones who this movie is about first and who it's for. So a few references that I highly encourage you to go check out, which will be in the show notes and on substack the links will be there. So that way you have a better perspective than I could ever provide. No matter how much I love the movie and would want to, it's just not something that I can do. One is Simone Umba on TikTok. She's a mutual of mine who's been on the podcast. I love her takes on pop culture and she's actually the one who is making videos about Sinner and it's because of her that I bought my ticket to see the movie. Another one is Straw Hat Goofy. Another great mutual of mine. I'm sure you might know him if you know me and you love popcorn culture videos as he really grew his audience by reporting on movies. He even sat down and interviewed Ryan Coogler for this movie, which I highly encourage you to watch. Another one is IndieWire's podcast interview with Ryan Coogler. Really listen to any interview that Coogler is doing himself because you hear it from the source. But I thought that his podcast interview with Indiewire was especially great. It was direct and concise, yet revealing about his mindset, inspiration and references throughout the movie. Another one is a Tiktoker edits by Ego. He is going viral right now for his sinners like theories and hypothesis and he's the one who found the Spotify page that had like news clippings and graphics that were kind of hinting at more about the movie. So I want to give him credit there. So definitely check out his TikTok. And then number one, if you can only listen to one thing today, I think you should listen to the In Proximity podcast. It is an interview between Ryan Coogler and his cinematographer, Autumn Derald Arkapa, who will come up a lot in this episode. They talk for almost an hour and it's really cool because one, there's no ads. You guys know how I feel about podcast ads. They're everywhere and they're so annoying. That's why I don't do them. But it's really cool because you can tell that they are comfortable with one another. And it's kind of like eavesdropping on a conversation of these brilliant minds versus a stiff interview where they kind of ask Coogler the same questions over and over again. And let me know as I'm talking if there's any other references throughout the movie that I miss that you want to talk about. You can either do it in the comments on Substock or on the reviews on Apple and Spotify. Thank you to so many of you guys who are growing our reviews. It means so much to me. The lowest number reviews is on Apple right now. So I'm. A lot of you guys listen on Substack and Spotify. But if you can go over there and review it, then it will help this podcast ahead of the curve with Coco Moco reach more like minded pop culture and marketing people. Like us. Like us. Coconut. So thank you so much, but I would love to know one the moment that made you decide to go see the movie, what was that moment? Was because it was Ryan Coogler, Michael B. Jordan. Is it because you saw a video about it? Mine was because I saw a TikTok about it. And then also if there's anything in the movie that I don't bring up in this episode or that you, before you even listen to the episode, you're like, I just want to say I thought this part was cool. I thought this was a hidden message. Whatever. Go ahead and do that in the reviews or in the comments on Spot or on Substack. So thank you. So now time for me to overanalyze the movie, which is what I do best. So in the first half of this episode, I'm going to cover the Irish themes and lore interwoven throughout the movie, the intersectionality of the Chinese immigrants in the movie, the most important scene that I believe kind of ties it all together. And then some really interesting fun facts that I learned about the movie, the making of the movie from reading about it, but also listening to the interviews. And then in the second half of the episode, which is available on my bestselling substack for $9 a month, we will then discuss the danger of being seen as a theme throughout this movie. The quick but powerful use of Native Americans in this movie, and some fun facts about filming with them that Coogler talked about. And then the doppelganger metaphor of the smokestack twins in this movie. And then really kind of just the marketing of the Sinners movie, which is like my favorite part, and how I think they're doing some really interesting things to get the word out. Now diving on in. In the opening scene of Sinners, a voice narrates a tale of Irish folklore about how the Irish believed that there were certain people so connected to music that they could move through space and time and bring back our ancestors. But this also attracted an evil spirit. They then talk about how the Choctaw Natives had a similar belief, and so did African tribes. The parallels between the Irish, the Choctaw Natives, and Black Americans are interwoven throughout the entire story of Sinners, A story about how different groups cope with oppression and the unexpected alliances that form, but also the betrayals that can really come from this sacred pain. The main villain in the story is an Irish vampire named Remic. And he's originally an Irish man whose roots could go far back as 1160, almost a thousand years ago, which would mark the first invasion of Ireland from Anglo Normans or what we know as the British. In an interview with Coogler that I listened to on Indiewire, he spoke about how using this Irish character was partly inspired by the fact that him and his kids love Irish folk music, and then also how he wanted to use a Irish vampire that was so historical in his own time that he was fully kind of removed from any understanding of what might be happening in America with segregation. Now we know that this vampire is able to take on the knowledge of the people around him. But this vampire was kind of just as mystified by American culture at the time as the. The black Americans were mystified by him. He kind of had this earnest want to assimilate them into his kind of vampire cult, but also this predatory ignorance that what he could offer was better when that wasn't true. Obviously, the Irish share a similar history of oppression to black Americans. Irish folk music and black American blues music, both were born from cultures grappling with systematic oppression and finding unique ways to communicate with one another, but also pass their stories down throughout generations. Particularly striking scene features Remick and his vampire cohort performing an Irish jig. And he's Irish dancing. And it really kind of juxtaposes Traditional Irish dance with the film's Southern Gothic atmosphere. Despite the Irish and black Americans sharing a similar history of systematic oppression and violent colonialism, the use of Remic as a vampire is still a reminder that the oppressed can become the oppressor, and that what may start as a genuine appreciation for another's art or culture can turn into vulturism and vampirism when one sucks the life out of the thing that they thought that they were admiring, and they leave it dry as they move on to the next thing. Coogler even uses vultures around the barn house as this kind of imagery, and it also showcases how whiteness, even though the Irish were oppressed, but this whiteness allows for them to kind of be this chameleon type that moves through cultures in a way that the people of color creating the original art are not able to maneuver through. As tides of trends turn and in the Sinner's Movie, there's a notable difference in how two different sets of white people in the south interact with the mainly black characters. We see multiple white people in the movie who are Triple K members, if you know what I mean. And then there's this Irish vampire who does not appear overtly racist and even uses talking points like we're all family tonight. But Coogler perfectly captures how it's sometimes the white person who's not overtly racist who can still do just as much damage as the overtly racist ones by approaching with what seems to be genuine tolerance and appreciation for what is different from them. The black characters let their guard down around these white characters, which lead to their ultimate demise. And Mary, played by Hailee Steinfeld, uses her chameleon whiteness to approach the vampires. But her earnest desire to bridge a divide between the white and black folks is what ultimately puts the black folks in danger. This movie has white allies grappling with the idea that sometimes earnestness, when not from a place of education, can actually become just as dangerous as malice. And with the other white characters in the movie, like the Triple K members or the couple that turns into a vampire, Smoke and Stack already have their guard up around them. Because of that, they are able to protect themselves because they know what to expect from these racist white people from a mile away. However, they let their guard down with the ones that seem more genuine. This movie feels like a warning that sometimes it is the ones who are the most earnest yet unpredictable even to themselves, who end up getting close enough to deal the ultimate blow. Another character that really highlights the intersectionality of this movie would be the Chinese immigrants. Coogler incorporates Chinese immigrants into the film to explore the intersection of race and oppression in a way that ensures that it doesn't feel one dimensional. Characters Grace and Bo Chow are Chinese American shopkeepers who supply the juke point which is central to the story. Their inclusion highlights the often overlooked presence of Chinese communities in the American south during the Jim Crow era where they navigated complex social hierarchies and discrimination while serving both black and white customers. The child's experience parallel those of black characters as both groups face systematic oppression and marginalization. It also explores the betrayal of two groups who deal with oppression and trauma differently when Grace wants to confront the vampires head on in an attempt to get her daughter, thus jeopardizing the group that she was previously in alliance with. I also think Coogler masterly uses the child's daughter in this movie as a way to highlight how different generations have different perspectives on survival tactics. The daughter seemed weary and maybe even somewhat resentful of her parents, especially in dealing with borderline criminal activity. An apprehension that ended up being valid since their her parents involvement with the Smokestack Brothers ultimately did cost her parents their lives. And then one of the more to me important scenes in this movie is the highest action point in the first half of the film. And it's when Sammy the preacher boy is playing blues music in the juke joint. You see other black musicians from the past and future come together in this moment, almost unaware of one another and yet in sync with the moment. What I loved about this scene is how the cinematographer Autumn Derald Arkapas filmed it in one long take. The camera doesn't cut at any point as they move through the juke joint. I'm fascinated at the choreography that it must have taken behind the scenes to get everyone in the right place as more characters appeared every time the camera spun around. And while music is a powerful and tactile way for the black community to connect to their ancestors and each other, it also became a double edged sword in the Sinners movie. It attracted the vultures of white culture that wanted a piece of a shiny object. The white vampires might not understand the ancestral significance of the music, but they do understand the profitability and exchange of energy. It's something that they cannot create themselves. It's a resource that they cannot mine themselves. And I loved Ryan Coogler's use of fire in the scene that I haven't seen anyone else talk about in the scene where Sammy is playing music and the room begins to transform there's all of these different ancestors and people from the future around them. You also see fire flickering all around, from candlelight to then embers falling from the background. And then eventually the last scene in this long shot, it pans up to the roof and you see that the roof is ablaze. And what's not literal but supernatural. Coogler used fire not just for the atmosphere, but as a symbol of humanity spark our ability to create and to connect and to summon something greater than ourselves. Fire is literally what separates humans from animals. It's fire is something that humans create, that we can create mechanically in a way that other species cannot. But in sinners, that same fire teeters on the edge of chaos. As Sammy's music intensifies, the flames grow less controlled, hinting that what makes us powerful can also consume us. It's a metaphor for the creative spirit, how channeling pain into art can both be liberating and dangerous. When the world comes looking to take what you've made. Sammy's guitar didn't just awaken the ancestors, but it attracted the predators. The scene where the juke joint is ablaze is the first time that we then see the three vampires appear lock in step. Sammy's gift, while sacred, becomes a curse. His ability to channel deep rooted emotion and pain through song tears open a portal. One that allows beings from different timelines and darker realms to cross over. Hence why Remik the Irish vampire wanted Sammy's abilities. Because if he had been living back in 1160, when Ireland was first colonized, it's possible that he is seeking out his ancestors to come back to him. And he sees that Sammy has this gift. And it's haunting commentary on how art can both be a form of liberation and vulnerability, especially for marginalized communities who have historically used music to survive, resist, and remember. Now, in the last segment of the first half of this episode, I want to talk about some fun facts I found about the making of this movie. Something fascinating about the making of Sinners that I heard when listening to the In Proximity podcast with Ryan Coogler and cinematographer Autumn Derald Arkapa. I'm gonna botch it, so go to the source, go listen to that podcast. But they talked about how they filmed certain scenes on IMAX film. But to do this, the machinery is actually really loud because it's literally rolling these films through the camera as they shoot. So Coogler was saying it's like, like really loud as they're filming. And there's this one pivotal scene in the movie where the Irish Immigrant seeks out refuge at a random barn house. They wanted to film part of this scene on imax, but they were worried about the loud noise of the camera because this was a really important scene where the characters had to have dialogue and there was like, it wasn't a camera that could sync sound. So Coogler said that Lola Kirk and Peter Germanus, the actors who played the white couple in the barnhouse, they are actually originally musicians. And so they were game for it. I don't know if it's implied that it's because they were used to kind of the chaos of like, in ears as an artist, like they hear the. As they're singing on stage and also just different rhythmic sounds in the background while trying to concentrate. It's really something that musicians are particularly acclimated to. So they were down there like, okay, let's do it. And then Coogler said that he was worried about Jack OConnell's reaction, the one who played the Irish vampire, because OConnell was not an A musician and yet he played such a pivotal role in this scene. But COOgler said that O'Connell was so game for it. And so that Barnes scene ends up being one of the most beautiful and cinematic scenes in the movie where the mood completely shifts. And it's one of the only scenes that really is like this Western. And there's also a fun fact about this part of the film involving the Choctaw natives that I will discuss in the extended episode on Substack. Did you know that Michael B. Jordan had such discomfort with a certain part of filming sinners that they had to call an emergency meeting to address it? Can you guess what that scene was? Surprisingly, it was not the spitting in the mouth scene or even just the various steamy scenes, but rather Michael B. Jordan was freaked out over the use of fake blood on set due to its texture and stickiness. Coogler and Jordan told People magazine that production had an emergency meeting to address his concerns, which Michael B. Jordan clarified that he. He was more venting than making a formal complaint, but that he appreciated the meeting because it meant that they cared about him. I think that's so interesting is like, he said he wasn't freaked out by, like, the teeth or anything. It was literally like the feeling of the blood. And you can see, I think it's at one point, Stack is like, drenched in blood. So maybe it was that scene when they're seeing if he's going to get revived, you know, that whole moment. And one of my favorite stories about the making of Sinners is how director Ryan Coogler found actor who was not known as an actor yet. Miles Caton, who played Preacher Boy Sammy, one of the most pivotal roles in the film. And I think you see the happenings of the story through his eyes more than any other character. Coogler told Variety that they fielded audition tapes from all over the world, but that Caton submitted a tape where he was filming in the dark, like he didn't turn on a bedroom light or anything. And Coogler said that that was immediately intriguing to him. Caton had never acted before, but unbeknownst to Ryan Coogler, he's actually considered a child prodigy in gospel music and is the son of gospel singer Timothy Figueroa. He was even scouted at one point by Grammy winning singer her to perform alongside her on tour before he even graduated high school. Variety describes him as youthful but having gravitas. And what's even cooler is that Caton told Variety that her called him one night while they were touring and said that someone in the audience at the tour stop wanted Kate in to audition for a role. When Katen was cast, he thought that it was just for a tiny side role of a kid playing a guitar. The Sinner's project was very tight lipped even to people close to Ryan Coogler. They didn't really understand what was happening or what the movie was about other than vampires. So it's not a surprise that they probably intentionally watered down what a lot of the roles would be when they were casting people that maybe weren't like these a list actors that they'd worked with before. So Katon thought that he was auditioning for this small role that he was just going to be singing and then he gets callbacks and then he gets the role. And he said that it wasn't until he was handed the actual script that he was blown away by how many lines he had and how pivotal of a role that he was actually about to play. I mean this is one of those life changing roles. Like this is. Oh my God, it's. He did so good. And it's really cool that he didn't even know that he was signing up for like a lead role until he had completed the audition process. I hope that those fun facts were just as interesting to you as they were to me. I have an interesting fun fact about the Choctaw natives that they filmed with. That again will come in the last second half of this episode. But before I get to the second half, I just want to say this and as someone who predicted Beyonce winning album of the year, Anora sweeping at the Oscars. I got six out of seven of the of the Grammy categories, correct? So I never lead the coconuts astray. Here's what I'm saying. Ryan Coogler will win an Oscar for Sinners. Michael B. Jordan will win an Oscar for Sinners. Miles Katon will win an Oscar for Sinners. Autumn Derald Acapa will win an Oscar for Sinners. Ludwig Goranson will win an Oscar for Sinners. And just sinners in general is going to fucking sweep at the Oscars. I I don't even need to see any other movies coming out this year. Sinners. It's all that matters. So how lucky are we to live at a time where art like this is being created? And I hope that the box office success of this movie only in its first weekend will send a smoke signal to Hollywood. The audiences are not dumb and and we want original screenplays and stories. We don't need watered down IP anymore. We crave something more and we crave something new. Rehashing old IP might be good for short term roi, but it's killing the creative spark that audiences are hungry for in new films. Ryan Coogler just inspired the next decade and beyond of original movie making at the box office and he really deserves his flowers for taking a creative risk. He jumped and the audience caught him. Now, in the last half of this episode on Ahead of the Curve with Kokomoko, I'm going to go more into the danger of being seen as a theme in this movie. The quick but powerful use of Choctaw Native Americans in this movie, the doppelganger metaphor of the Smokestack Twins, and then just the brilliant branding and marketing of the Sinner's movie. So let me know in the reviews on Apple or Spotify what your thoughts were on the Sinner's movie. If I missed anything that you want to talk about and if there's any other like, metaphors or symbolism that you think was really potent in the film. And if you're watching the full video version on my best selling sub stack, I'll see you coconuts on the other side.