The Emotional Appeal of Sinners
poster for Ryan Coogler's Sinners (2025) Recently, I saw Ryan Coogler’s Sinners for the third time in the theater, and at the end of the movie there’s a beautiful montage of the main character Sammy’s experiences on what he calls the best day of his life. He asks his cousin Stack, played by Michael B. Jordan, if he felt the same way. Stack replies, “Yes. That’s the last day I had my brother. It’s the last day I saw the sun.” As we dive into Sammy’s memories, and Stack’s memories of that day, the song “Last Time I Seen the Sun,” performed by Miles Caton and Alice Smith, plays. Now, I mention that this was the third time I’ve seen the movie because it was the first time I cried during it. Both the song and the images created such a beautiful, bittersweet montage of joy—and therefore loss—that I was completely overcome. And it dawned on me why this film has been resonating with me so much, and perhaps why it’s resonated with audiences. My hypothesis might also explain why some people...