Quite often, there is a significant disconnect between the movies that become blockbuster hits and the movies that win awards, which are often deemed to be more artistic endeavors. It’s not uncommon for directors who tend to work in that second group to make the occasional comment about why there’s something wrong with the first group, specifically as it regards the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Martin Scorsese has done it, as has Francis Ford Coppola.
However, one film can be both things, and Ryan Coogler has a knack for making them. Specifically, Sinners was a movie that made a killing at the box office while also being a darling of critics, and we can even add Francis Ford Coppola to that list of admirers. He took a moment recently to praise Sinners with some very strong language on Instagram, showing that he may take issue with some movies Ryan Coogler has made, but not this one. Coppola said…
I’m thinking now about SINNERS: Something this enormous, this personal, this epic and this outrageous cannot be ignored.
Coppola’s praise echoes that of many who saw Sinners earlier this year when it was in theaters, and those who have seen it since with an HBO Max subscription. It became one of the highest-grossing non-franchise films we’ve seen in a very long time.
Francis Ford Coppola has certainly been on the opposite side of the box office from Sinners or Marvel movies in recent years. His newest film, Megalopolis, was a passion project that he self-financed in order to get it made. The movie failed to be either a critical or a commercial success, despite incredible ambition.
Movies have been called an “empathy machine" for the way they can make an audience feel for and understand characters in ways they might not have been able to beforehand. Francis Ford Coppola indicates this is why Sinners is so great, because it deals very specifically with issues of race from a perspective that he cannot have, but it allows him to begin at least to understand that experience. He continued…
I always use as the key to my reaction to a film whether or not I was invited into a life or experience I could never know any other way. SINNERS is that; a historical epic, a horror film, a blues music extravaganza; an undiluted honest African-American perspective, the ultimate true vampire story (slavery) with an uncovering of years of thinking about cinema all in one gargantuan artistic composition.
Francis Ford Coppola’s praise for Sinners following his condemnation of Marvel movies is interesting because the creator of Sinners, Ryan Coogler, is also part of the MCU, and more than that, he arguably made the best Marvel movie, Black Panther. It’s the movie that people interested in “cinema” are generally allowed to say they like. But it gets grouped in with all the rest when discussing why Marvel movies are a sign of the fall of civilization.
Perhaps Francis Ford Coppola’s love for Sinners will lead him to seek out Black Panther and give Marvel movies another chance.
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