Delroy Lindo

From the back of a truck in Sinners (2025), Delroy Lindo makes a story about a man Delta Slim once knew the film's best speech. He delivers it with the ease of someone who expects to be heard and has good reason to expect it. We were absorbed, because he speaks with an ease that makes us want to hear the whole story. It is a good example of how much he can do with a supporting part when the writing gives him something worth saying.

Spike Lee gave that authority a substantial place in his films, beginning with the breakthrough role of West Indian Archie in Malcolm X (1992). Lindo then played neighbourhood drug dealer Rodney Little in Lee's Clockers (1995). Supporting film parts and television occupied much of the intervening career before Da 5 Bloods (2020), with Lindo as the Vietnam veteran Paul, brought renewed attention. The recurring collaborator is Lee, whose four films with Lindo offer a useful route through a career often spent in supporting parts.

In Barry Sonnenfeld's Get Shorty (1995), his Bo Catlett belongs to a cast whose different ways of throwing their weight about supply much of the comedy. Gene Hackman makes Harry Zimm's bluster look exhausting, while John Travolta supplies the composure that everyone else might be tempted to imitate. Lindo's swagger remains his own, and Sonnenfeld gets the laugh by allowing those differences to stand. The Hollywood jokes can be easy and the suspense is slight, but the conversations are enough to make this one worth an evening.

Ryan Coogler gives him the stronger individual scene in Sinners, though we recommend Get Shorty with fewer reservations. The music in Sinners is more rewarding than its well-staged but more ordinary horror. We can admire the staging and still wish for more time with Delta Slim. We would welcome another Coogler collaboration with more room for Lindo to talk.