Sinners
By Magdalena Nitchi
It’s amazing to walk out of a screening knowing that the film will definitely make your top five that year. This is exactly how I felt after seeing Sinners, Ryan Coogler’s latest masterpiece. I’ve watched many supernatural horror movies, but few are as perfectly constructed as this one. The cinematography is incredible, and goes hand in hand with the actors’ vividly humanistic portrayal of their characters.
Before reading further, potential viewers should consider themselves warned: this phenomenal film is extremely violent and more sexual than its 13+ rating would imply.
Mississippi, 1932: Sammie (Miles Caton), sharecropper and son of a pastor, has a gift for song but has been warned to stay away from rowdy juke joints. Yet, when his cousins Smoke and Stack return from Chicago, flush with cash from dubious sources and intent on starting their own club, Sammie is eager to play at their opening night. However, Sammie’s enchanting music draws more than just crowds of adoring patrons; it attracts an evil that threatens to snuff out every living soul within reach.
I adore how well Coogler develops his characters before any supernatural elements appear. Smoke and Stack’s dynamic, as well as their interactions with Sammie, are the focus of the beginning of the movie, and I was charmed by their playful (though surprisingly raunchy) conversations. Seeing the effort that goes into preparing the juke joint and understanding their dreams and pasts makes the ensuing death and destruction all the more devastating. The villains, especially Jack O’Connell’s Remmick, are show-stoppingly terrifying. O’Connell’s unsettling smile and innocent act grow increasingly creepy as the movie’s twists unfold.
Sinners also features a majestic and vibrant soundtrack. Blues and ragtime feature prominently, and the haunting songs transcend time and space. In one psychedelic scene, the souls of African ancestors and modern Black rock and hip-hop musicians are even summoned to celebrate alongside living revellers. The music—in moments both diegetic and extradiegetic—follows the beat of life and death, punctuating scenes of joy and vitality, and moments of psychological and gruesome horror alike. Göransson’s work truly showcases the power music holds.
Sinners is a powerful film, using horror to explore religion, racism, colonialism, freedom, and the stories we tell ourselves. With compelling writing, a strong cast, masterful direction, and formidable supernatural elements, this film has no real weakness; it will surely take its place among the classics.
Land of the Sons
By Olivia Shan
On a complete whim, I picked up Italian cartoonist Gipi’s 2018 graphic novel Land of the Sons and absorbed it in a few hours. Few other books I’ve read have delivered such a transformative and moving reading experience, which is remarkable considering how unremarkable its premise seems.
Amid murky bayous and damp lowlands, two young brothers—the titular “sons”—along with their aging father, struggle in the face of a world constantly teeming with the threat of disease, death, and worse. With a dash of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies and generous influence from Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, Land of the Sons has all your basic post-apocalyptic fixtures (cannibals, neo-religions, and what have you) but is elevated by both Gipi’s incredible artistic ability and how deftly he portrays the story’s central father-son dynamics.
The brothers’ father is a burdened and difficult man who shows his children no affection to ensure they grow up “tough,” insisting that it is the only way they will survive. Although this version of their father is all the boys have ever known, they grow increasingly fixated on a secret journal, which he has kept hidden away from them. Illiterate and desperate to be privy to their impenetrable father’s true thoughts and feelings, they set out to find fellow survivalists who might be able to decipher the words within.
What is most brilliant about Land of the Sons is how Gipi lets his artwork do most of the storytelling. His distinctive sketchy art style renders the washed-out setting as stripped-back as the odd, fable-esque characters that populate it. The art’s monochromatic, scratchy look conveys the sense of a world pared down to its bones; yet in critical scenes that contain no dialogue, this masterful restraint creates incredibly rich and nuanced emotional beats that stay with readers long after they’ve turned the last page.
Amid a world devoid of all things human and civilized, Land of the Sons presents a story that will always feel current: the insurmountable love of a father towards his children, and the impossibility of a genuine connection despite (or because) of this very same love.
Dinosaur Sanctuary Tome 5
Par Magdalena Nitchi
Il est temps de parler à nouveau de mon manga préféré. Dinosaur Sanctuary est l’histoire d’un monde similaire à Jurassic Park, mais le retour des dinosaures ne s’est pas terminé par une tragédie à grande échelle. À travers les yeux de Suma Suzume, une dinokeeper débutante, les lecteurs découvrent Enoshima Dinoland. Même si le parc est en difficulté, son personnel reste très dévoué et son groupe de dinosaures est unique. À l’aide du chercheur Shin-ichi Fujiwara, l’artiste et écrivain Itaru Kinoshita donne continuellement vie aux connaissances scientifiques les plus récentes sur de nombreuses espèces de dinosaures.
Si vous n’avez jamais entendu parler de la série auparavant, je vous recommande fortement de commencer par le premier volume du manga. Bien que chaque volume jusqu’à présent introduit de nouveaux personnages, il existe également des éléments et des dynamiques entre personnages qui se construisent depuis le début de la série, et vous pourriez vous sentir un peu perdu si vous commencez par le volume le plus récent.
Dans le cinquième volume, Suma est toujours dans sa période de formation travaillant avec les dinosaures herbivores. Trois des cinq chapitres de ce manga suivent Umeko et Shoukichi, une paire de Centrosaurus qui essaient d’avoir un bébé. L’histoire commence de manière légère, avec des blagues concernant le fait que les dinosaures ne peuvent pas facilement s’accoupler. Cependant, elle se transforme rapidement en un drame médical, car la vie de l’un d’entre eux est en jeu. Même s’il y a eu quelques histoires avec des dinosaures blessés ou malades dans la série auparavant, celle-ci est encore plus dramatique. Les convictions de Suma la conduisent à se heurter à Shiranui Ren, le vétérinaire responsable de tous les soins médicaux des dinosaures. J’ai été complètement accrochée par l’intrigue, si bien que je n’ai pas pu m’endormir avant d’avoir lu la suite.
Cependant, si vous êtes sensible aux drames médicaux et aux animaux morts, ce volume n’est pas pour vous. Il aborde également l’histoire d’un des personnages avant son arrivée à Enoshima, qui parle beaucoup de la cruauté envers les animaux.
En tout, le cinquième volume de Dinosaur Sanctuary est un merveilleux ajout à la série. C’est formidable de voir Suma s’épanouir et avoir moins peur de s’exprimer, même si ses collègues ont beaucoup plus d’expérience. J’ai adoré chaque tome jusqu’à présent et j’ai hâte de découvrir la suite de l’histoire.