If prepared properly, films that blend genres can deliver a delicious cinematic meal. But for the dish to be delightful, every element, including the story’s script, needs to have an utterly alluring taste. Written and directed by Ryan Coogler, Sinners is an ambitiously thrilling picture, let down by lacklustre pacing and a poor narrative structure. With its plot problems in mind, this film is still filled with crowd-pleasing moments and moving cultural themes.

Returning to their hometown in Mississippi, a pair of brothers are confronted with an evil force unlike anything they have encountered before. The film stars Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, Miles Caton and Jack O’Connell.

Sinners is a seductively stylish film that thrives in its moments of visual splendour. A celebration of Black culture and music, this is a bold endeavour made up of a uniquely enticing genre-mashing plot. Unfortunately, despite portraying many cinematically-charged moments, its narrative shortcuts mean that most of the story’s biggest set-pieces fall flat and feel unearned.

A destination is only as strong as its journey, this goes for a film too. Sinners desperately wants to have memorable scenes that hold emotional weight, but doesn’t have a strong enough structure to support them. Most of the story is one thing happening after another, with little thought into establishing a deliberate pace. The movie relies too much on its underlying themes, hoping that viewers are attracted by the fresh drama-meets-horror paint, without realising that much of it is a false facade.

All this does not mean that the film deserves a negative score. The filmmaking on display is remarkable, as is the performance from the cast. Michael B. Jordan and Jack O’Connell are two standouts in particular. Furthermore, Ryan Coogler shows his strengths as a director throughout every minute of the 138-minute runtime. The sequences involving music are some of the best moments that you will see all year. Sadly, these scenes are flashes of brilliance that act as beautiful music videos amidst a story that fails to develop tension or narrative depth.

Sinners is a film that appears to have been produced too quickly. A few more runs at the script and some more careful planning would have likely honed the project into the classic it had the potential to be. And even though this movie may not work for everyone, its reception seems to tell a different story, with countless critics praising it as a masterpiece. As is the case with any piece of art, appreciation is in the eye of the beholder.