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Minor spoilers for Sinners lie ahead, so read on with that in mind.
When it comes to 2025 movie releases, Sinners has arguably emerged as one of the most buzzed-about films of the year thus far. Ryan Coogler’s southern vampire epic successfully crossed box office milestones and earned critical acclaim from critics and general audiences alike. The ambitious production features its fair share of spectacle, but it’s the more personal moments that truly make it shine. On that note, there’s one particularly sobering moment that I haven’t stopped thinking about since I watched the film.
Delroy Lindo’s Delta Slim Has A Moment That’ll Stay With Me Forever
Sinners features a strong cast headed up by Michael B. Jordan, who skillfully plays twins Elijah “Smoke” and Elias “Stack” Moore. Other cast members like Hailee Steinfeld, Wunmi Mosaku, Jack O’Connell and Miles Caton shine as well. However, I really have to give props to veteran actor Delroy Lindo, who portrays resident wino and skilled bluesman Delta Slim. Lindo steals more than a few scenes, and his character adds levity to the bleak narrative. However, a heartbreaking moment involving Slim that I want to discuss.
After Smoke and his cousin, Sammie (Miles Caton), recruit Slim for the the Smokestack twins’ juke joint, they ride through a cotton field, where they pass inmates working. Slim yells to them, “Keep ya head, keep ya head.” It’s then that Delta recalls being arrested along with other Black men and thrown in prison. He then explains that while behind bars, he and his fellow inmates were taken to a house to perform. The story takes a truly tragic turn when Slim recalls a fellow performer who wanted to use the money he earned to build a church.
Delta shares that the friend in question, who wanted to start his church in Little Rock, Arkansas, took out all of his money to pay for a $2 train ticket. Eventually, the Ku Klux Klan caught wind of the cash he had and fabricated a story about him killing a white man, stealing the cash from him and then raping his wife. With that, Slim’s friend was lynched and also mutilated right at the station. Something that adds to the emotional heft of the scene is the fact that it’s overlaid with audio of the mob and lynching.
With this scene, Delroy Lindo serves up a master class in acting. He delivers the monologue with absolute conviction, conveying a sheer sense of despair. Adding to Lindo’s performance and the scene as a whole is the fact that Slim eventually starts singing to himself once the pain of the memory starts to set in. Not only does the British actor deserve credit for his stellar work but so does Ryan Coogler, whose screenplay captures just a snippet of the shared trauma Black people experienced in the segregated south.
This Sinners Scene Alone Should Also Make The Case For Delroy Lindo’s Awards Season Chances
It’s honestly way too early to be talking about awards season and, in my humble opinion, we should simply be enjoying the films without considering what kind of prizes they could or should win. With that being said, I’d love to see Delroy Lindo receive some love in the coming months. And, if chatter on X is any indication, I’m not the only one who couldn’t stop thinking about Lindo’s Slim after watching the movie.
Delta Slim could be a one-note character in the hands of a lesser actor and writer/director. Thankfully, Delroy Lindo and Ryan Coogler work together to turn him into a nuanced individual who can tickle viewers’ funny bones and break their hearts. In a perfect world, Lindo would, at the very least, score an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. That would not only be deserving, given his work, but it would also be sweet retribution for Lindo being snubbed in that category for his stellar work in 2020’s Da 5 Bloods.
Regardless of whether any kind of awards are handed out or not, none of that would detract from the fact that Delta Slim’s monologue scene is very impressive. It can be hard to mine true emotion out of a blockbuster, but Ryan Coogler does so in stellar fashion. The well-reviewed Sinners truly tugs at the heartstrings, and Delta’s moment is a testament to that.
Check out Sinners for yourself right now by renting or buying it on digital platforms now. Also, read up on other movies that should be seen in a theater this year.