With the world feeling like it’s running a perpetual fever — wars, genocides, fascist drumbeats, the whole dizzying mess — I figured we could all use a breather. So instead of adding to the pile of existential dread, let’s take a gentler detour and sift through the portrayal of climate in one of this year’s biggest pop-culture hits. If we’re going to reckon with the planet’s unraveling, we might as well have a little fun talking about historical dramas and the cues they missed.
Sinners
Sinners is a hell of a film — and absolutely worth your time. Ryan Coogler and his team did their homework, stitching in historical context so deftly you barely notice the seams. They even thread global events into the narrative without spoon-feeding you (there’s a whole subplot involving an Irish vampire and the Choctaw he seeks refuge with that works because the filmmakers assume, correctly, that history still matters).
But there’s one thing the movie absolutely whiffs on, and once you see it, you can’t …
