‘Sing Sing’ Review

The first thing I noticed about ‘Sing Sing’ was the texture. Shot on 16mm film, there’s a rawness, a graininess to all the images, evoking memories of socially conscious dramas from the 1970s. There is grit in everything this movie touches: the images, the characters, their performances. Nothing about this movie is polished, nor does it want to be: ‘Sing Sing’ is a film about flawed people who are struggling, who are trying to find some happiness even as their realities are grim.

The film follows Divine G (Colman Domingo), an inmate at Sing Sing maximum security prison and a founding member of the Rehabilitation Through the Arts program in which inmates perform theater for the rest of the prison population. Having just finished a production of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, Divine G and his close friend Mike Mike (Sean San José) are set to interview new cast mates: enter Divine Eye (Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin playing a version of himself), a troubled, angry man who profits on the yard by conning and threatening other inmates. This angry man, however, had stumbled on ‘King Lear’ and found himself attracted to the theater, feeling understood by Shakespeare’s writing.

Divine G originally looks at Divine Eye as somebody to look after, to mentor. But as the group discusses what play to do next, Divine Eye resists doing a drama written by Divine G in favor of a comedy. This prompts the rest of the troupe to start throwing out elements they want included in the play: ancient Egypt, time travel, Freddy Krueger, etc. The theater director, Brent Buell (Paul Raci), writes a script that includes everything the program members wanted, even though the result is a bloated, nonsensical mess. Divine G looks down upon the play as beneath his standards, but he nonetheless goes along with the process, refusing to put any one person’s thoughts above the group. The rest of the film follows the program as they assemble the production, even as they all deal with their own personal demons every time they return to the general population.

This is a beautiful, deeply human film with incredible acting from the entire ensemble. Much of the cast is made up of former alumni of prison RTA programs, lending the film a neorealist authenticity. Colman Domingo and Clarence Maclin are the central relationship of the film, carrying much of the dramatic weight, and both are exceptional. It’s a tough challenge, playing characters who are in turn acting as other characters, but both men deliver nuanced and powerful performances. Domingo, when acting for the in-film play, is very good, but when we see Divine G break down at one point, lashing out at his fellow cast members and the theater program, after receiving some bad news, it’s made all the more powerful as a contrast to his more mannered performances during rehearsals. It’s a difficult, layered performance that is heartbreaking and inspiring, deserving of all the praise coming its way.

There are no throwaway characters, even those with very few lines are given moments of humanity. In one stirring scene, Brent leads the troupe in a thought exercise. They all close their eyes and imagine their safe spaces, imagine the sounds, the sights, the people. Then they open their eyes, and we go around the circle, every man sharing what he imagined. The stories range from tragic, to nostalgic, to humorous, but each story makes us appreciate these men as real people, and makes them appreciate each other.

As we watch the men work on their art, the tragedy of their circumstances keeps coming through. Directed by Greg Kwedar, with cinematography from Pat Scola, we are constantly looking through windows, seeing the outside world that these inmates long for. The scenes in the prison are shot with an intentional dullness, a boredom, broken with moments of tension, forcing us to consider the persistent stress of existing in such a violent world. As a contrast, the theater is shot with wonderful lighting, sometimes blue, sometimes red, and the makeshift costumes are a source of constant pleasure. But it’s when these two worlds collide, when the elation and optimism of the theater affects the real world, when the trauma of prison life comes into the rehearsal stage, that the true drama happens.

‘Sing Sing’ tells a beautiful story that insists upon striving for joy even in the face of an unjust, uncaring, desperate world. It takes an oft-neglected population as its subject, and uplifts the theater as a form of therapy, a form of escape, when all else is pain, without ever shying away from the mundane oppression of prison life. It is a wonderful film, filled with hope and hopelessness, triumph and tragedy, committed to the power of art in even the most dire of spaces.

Sing Sing
Rated R for language throughout.
Running Time: 1 hour and 47 minutes

Director Greg Kwedar
Writers Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar
Stars Colman Domingo, Clarence Maclin, Sean San José, Paul Raci
Rating R
Running Time 107 Minutes
Genres Drama