Sing Sing initially came out months ago in a very limited release, but it received a large amount of acclaim from those limited number of theaters. It became the favorite for best picture shortly after it came out, and although the best picture race has changed some with The Brutalist and Emilia Perez starting to receive more love, Sing Sing is still worthy of being in the conversation. Personally, I think it is vastly better than Emilia Perez, and I have no idea why Emilia Perez is receiving the amount of awards love that it is getting. Sing Sing is a much more emotional and engaging story. (Edit: the Oscar nominations have now come out, and Sing Sing did not even get nominated for best picture, which is a crime.)
Sing Sing is a prison in New York, but in the prison, they have a theater program, where a group of men get together, decide what play they want to put on, or they write their own, and then they meet regularly to practice acting and rehearsing the play. Divine G is the founder of the theater troop, and he often plays a major role in writing the plays as well. So a new show is starting, and the group is looking for some new members, and Divine Eyes signs up, so they interview him and bring him into the crew, and he is an incredible actor, but he is very guarded, and one of the key aspects of the group is that they are more vulnerable with each other. Also during this time, a couple of the people in the group are trying to get released from prison, so those two plots run concurrently, but they are not exclusive from each other.
What makes the movie so powerful is the subverting of expectations. Prison is generally considered a brutal place, but this movie is all about bringing light into the darkness. In the words of the movie, the theater troop gives the inmates a chance to feel human again, and if prison is really about rehabilitation instead of just punishment, then this is a great way to do it. There is a shot towards the beginning, and it is a bird standing on the top of the fence of the prison. It is right in the middle of a spiral of barbwire, and that shot is emblematic of the whole movie. I kept thinking about it as I watched. The bird is something beautiful, and it is surrounded by something industrial and gross, just like the prison is hard, but bringing the art of the theater into the prison can bring something beautiful.
But the beauty and emotional depth of this story could not be accomplished without the superb acting of Colman Domingo and Clarence Maclin, and they play off each other so well. Domingo plays the lead, Divine G, the man who started the theater troop, but he has done so much more. He has worked so hard in prison. Not only to dig deep into law to help prove his innocence, but also to help others in there with him, and he was also involved in other organizations as well. He is basically above and beyond your model citizen.
Calrence Maclin, Divine Eyes, is originally shown being an intimidating presence in the prison yard threatening some dude who wronged him, so when he joins the theater troop, his hardened personality is the main aspect that comes through, but he is an incredible actor, and as time passes, his façade slowly starts to crack. Bits of light shine through, and he starts to fully commit to the group, and now instead of being the one that needs to be lifted up, he becomes the one that tries to lift others up.
The relationship between Divine G and Divine Eyes is integral to the emotional core of the movie. Domingo’s character is the one that is doing his best to lift Clarence Maclin. Maclin, immediately comes into the crew and takes the spot in the play that Domingo wanted, but instead of being jealous, Domingo does his best to guide Maclin into how to do his part better, and after looking into Maclin’s case, Domingo fills out forms and checks boxes to help raise the chances that Maclin could get released from prison, and he instructs Maclin on how to write his essay. The problem is that Domingo thought a piece of evidence had been dug up that would lead to his release, but it was not considered substantial enough to free him
Reasonably, this was enough to crumble Domingo. He quit the theater troop, and he isolated himself more, but he had been so good at being there for others, that it was easy for them to reach out to him, specifically Divine Eyes, who comes out to him on the yard, and he convinces Domingo to come back to troop, because they need him to put the show on, and at the end, Divine Eyes calls him beloved. Towards the beginning of the movie, Divine G and Divine Eyes are having a one on one conversation, and Divine Eyes uses the N word in reference to Divine G, and G says that in the theater group that they do not use that word, they call each other beloved, and Divine Eyes basically rolled his eyes. So to have that moment come full circle, and for Divine Eyes to call G beloved was an extremely powerful moment.
The vulnerability these men showed each other was incredible. Obviously, prison is usually associated with the opposite of vulnerability, but when doing the different acting exercises in front of each other, they really must have no shame. On top of that they did imaginative exercises as well, where they would imagine their perfect place, and they discussed that with each other. So not only are they bringing art into prison, but they are also working on breaking down other walls as well and removing stereotypes.
Although this movie was heartwarming, it was not afraid to throw some serious gut punches as well. Divine G had a best friend, Mike Mike, and they would talk about the theater productions and life all the time. They even had cells next to each other, and one night, they were having a heart-to-heart talk through the hole in their wall, and Mike Mike stopped replying. G thought that he had just fallen asleep, but the next morning they found out that he had an aneurism and died, which was just brutal.
Then when Divine G was at his hearing to be released, they told him that the tape he found was not good enough, because the person who confessed was no longer alive, so they could not fully use it to free him, which was a hard hit. Then they asked him about the theater group. So he talked about how he acts, writes, and helps direct it, and instead of that being a helpful aspect to freeing him, they then asked him if he was now acting in the hearing since he was so good at it, which was just so painful to hear. He was such a good guy always helping others and trying to bring something great into the prison, and they just dismissed it as a way to fake his way out. It was heart breaking.
The movie was also enlightening to me in a way I did not expect. I have no acting or theater background, but clearly, I have a deep appreciation and love for the movies, and in this one, they talked about acting often. They even had the director of the play giving commentary, and they showed different acting exercises. So I thought that was so cool. It was something I knew so little about, and just that small amount of information was so helpful.
One of the best things about this movie is that the majority of the cast were actually prisoners a part of the Sing Sing theater program. Colman Domingo was not, but Clarence Maclin, who gave an incredible performance was, and many of the other supporting actors were, which was amazing. Sadly, I knew that going in, but other people got to be surprised by that during the credits, which had to be a cool realization.
I cannot recommend this movie enough. I was choked up multiple times, sometimes in heart break, but sometimes in joy. The character arcs are done masterfully, and Domingo and Maclin should both be up for acting Oscars (Domingo got nominated, Maclin did not sadly), and I would not be surprised if both won. The story does not shy away from criticizing a broken system, but it also shows that there can be beauty in brokenness if people put the effort in, and that is a lesson everyone can learn from. 4.5 Stars!!! (I know it is a powerful story because I could feel my eyes start to tear up a little just from writing about it.)
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