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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Whizbang Dustyboots" data-source="post: 9764481" data-attributes="member: 11760">Finally saw this last night and it was, as hoped, amazing.I really liked how strongly Coogler leaned into the time and place -- is "haint" a word non-Black people outside of the South even know? -- and, more importantly, how he explicitly talked about the Black experience as a continuum, not a single point in time, and that the juke joint musicians were in explicit conversation with the past and future of both Black society and Chinese society.It would have been very easy to have told a version of this story without the vampires and it would have been excellent, but Coogler committing to a no-fooling, this-is-a-legit-horror-movie vampires (instead of some art house take) really elevated both components.As a result, we get a vampire movie with some real thoughts on its mind and a movie about the Jim Crow South that never feels didactic.The soundtrack was amazing, and when I saw [ISPOILER]Buddy Guy's[/ISPOILER] name in the credits moments before he appeared, I made an excited noise. What a great cameo.He was the weakest actor (no shame in that) in a cast of past, present and future superstars. Any time you have Delroy Lindo as a mere supporting actor, you're bringing serious firepower to your film. Michael B. Jordan's performance at first felt a bit like a stunt -- look, they're wearing different colors and see how seamless it is when the twins hand off a cigarette between them? -- but it quickly became clear how serious he was about inhabiting each of the brothers and telling their parallel but not identical tragic tales. And Hailee Steinfeld, who I first saw in True Grit, a million years ago, continues to get better and better.A remarkable movie, top to bottom.</blockquote>

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