Smoke, Stack, Black Men, and Movement

One more thing, Smoke and Stack alone demands a deep dive into this film. As a twin, I have to say this is by far the best portrayal of twins in any film I’ve ever seen. Also was free game for a fire Halloween costume. –Jalen White

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In Sinners, we see men driving cars and trucks and even riding horses. Not the women. You know, so far, when I hear folks talking, they're most focusing on differences between Mary (Hailee Steinfeld) and Annie (Wunmi Mosaku...more Black diasporic casting, Dixon). So basically a lot of the typical white woman vs. Black woman. But, I haven't seen many folks note the commonality with both of them in the position of being left by men and then waiting for those men to return. --Howard Rambsy II

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Re: More on Black men and movement I started thinking about how travel and movement with mobile Black men are embedded deep in our psyches, the culture, and folklore. All those songs and stories about guys traveling or longing to travel. Toni Morrison talks about how much Black men loved trains, because they were oriented to traveling, and then you look at Sinners and see that the main characters are named Smoke and Stack as in the Smokestack of a train. 

Let's also consider some metaphorical movement within a production—so Michael B. Jordan moving back and forth from Smoke to Stack. By doing that, Jordan is now in a continuum that includes the ultimate single-film Black character shifter--Eddie Murphy. If we view Coogler's five films as an interconnected body of work, then we'd have to acknowledge Jordan moving across various roles within that collection. Back on Sinners, it's fascinating to consider that within a single day, Smoke and Stack move around and interactive with several different people: preacher, preacher's son, children, criminals, plantation workers, musicians, store owners, white people, love interests, old friends, vampires, Black townspeople. It's a lot of moves being made for all of that to happen. --Howard Rambsy II

Related: 

• A Notebook on Sinners