Sing Sing

SING SING (15)

D: Greg Kwedar

A24 / Black Bear / Marfa Peach Company (Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar & Monique Walton)

US 🇺🇸 2023 (released 2024)

105 mins

Drama

W: Clint Bentley & Greg Kwedar [based on the books “The Sing Sing Follies” by John H. Richardson & “Breakin’ the Mummy’s Code’ by Brent Buell]

DP: Pat Scola

Ed: Parker Laramie

Mus: Bryce Dessner

Colman Domingo (John ‘Divine G’ Whitfield), Clarence Maclin (Divine Eye), Sean San Jose (Mike Mike), Paul Raci (Brent Buell), Johnny Simmons (Clay)

This prison dramas greatest strengths are most certainly the performances of the ensemble cast, particularly Colman Domingo as John ‘Divine G’ Whitfield and the debuting Clarence Maclin.

The plot follows a group of inmates at the maximum security Sing Sing correctional facility, where a group of serving inmates participate in a performing arts programme.  

For Divine G, it allows him to portray Shakespeare’s greatest characters, such as Macbeth & Hamlet, making him the star of the show, but the order is disrupted when Divine Eye (Maclin) joins the programme, unwilling to participate in some of the expressionist exercises and seemingly sabotaging their upcoming production by suggesting an absurdist comedy plot & then taking the only dramatic role away from the show’s regular star, effectively stealing the spotlight from Divine G.

Though the two men have their differences, a friendship does eventually develop between them. 

Brilliant acting makes this drama an incredibly worthwhile watch, even if it isn’t really about very much at all beyond its incredibly light premise.

8/10