In general, Sinners has great cinematography, but I think this tracking shot that follows Lisa Chow across the street from her parent's Black storefront to their White storefront is one of my favorites:
Look at how it immediately establishes the rules of the movie's setting.
This is Jim Crow Mississippi where Black and White residents essentially live in different worlds. The continuous take forces us (the audience) to experience that segregation in real time as we walk behind Lisa crossing the street. There are no cuts or edits to interrupt the discomfort of having to witness all those visual reminders of racism against Black Americans.
I think it's also significant that it's Lisa, an Asian American woman, who the camera follows. As someone who exists outside the Black-White racial binary, sheโs able to traverse these two worlds but the bright red of her shirt still demarcates her as a conspicuous outsider amidst all the blue and brown on both sides, representing the uniquely precarious position of Asians in the U.S.โs racial hierarchy.
It also establishes the long history between Asians and Black Americans, both in solidarity under white supremacy, and wholly apart from one another in the racial hierarchy. Asian-owned storefronts are a huge part of Black American history and this shot encapsulates that part of our intertwined Diasporic cultures eloquently.
