Yet, that reading overlooks the nuances that Jordan infuses into the characters to distinguish them beyond their different color schemes. As the more serious of the two, Smoke has a more stoic disposition, getting right down to business and asking the tough questions. Conversely, the good natured Stack has a less cynical nature, and is more open to what life offers him.
Different as these two personalities are, Jordan never overplays them. Instead, the differences show in subtle ways. When Smoke finds two men stealing from his truck outside a general store, he has no problem shooting them, even after identifying one as an old accomplice. But he thinks carefully before doing so, with Jordan creasing his brow and letting the sides of his mouth droop as Smoke feels a bit of sadness about his actions.
Contrast that to the openness displayed by Stack, especially when he first hears Sammie Moore (Miles Caton) play guitar. Director Ryan Coogler trains his camera off to the side of the instrument’s neck, letting us see all of Jordan’s face as Stack takes in the sounds he hears. Jordan holds Stack’s excitement for a moment before finally exploding in excitement, showing us everything we need to know about the character’s joie de vivre.
While Jordan’s technical prowess is impressive, that’s not the only element to his performance. He’s a full-on movie star in Sinners, bursting with charisma. When he swaggers into the town as Smoke and Stack, we viewers have no choice but to watch. In the second half of the movie, he makes Stack into a seductive villain and Smoke into a proper action hero, playing both sides of a classic genre flick all by himself. Just as much as Coogler’s bombastic direction, Jordan’s pure magnetism helped Sinners become a blockbuster sensation, despite the hard truths it has to tell.
Having already earned acclaim for his work in The Wire, Black Panther, and Creed, Jordan is clearly one of our most exciting actors. The Actor’s Award only proves that his technically complex but incredibly satisfying take in Sinners deserves attention. It reminded us that the Best Actor race was never just a two-man affair, and is far, far from over.
Sinners is now streaming on HBO Max.
