Anchored around a tremendous lead performance from Colman Domingo, Sing Sing is one of the year's most empathetic and powerful films.
But for much of the movie, it seems that the film won't go any deeper than the surface. But as it goes, it reveals layer after layer of its many characters, making them more than archetypes. It would be easy to label the film as a "crowd pleaser," but that wouldn't do justice to how raw and painful the film is in its depiction of America's cruel carceral system.
Domingo plays Divine G, an artist wrongfully convicted of murder. While waiting on appeals and clemency, he throws himself into writing and performing as part of a theatre troupe. He's grateful for a creative outlet, but desperately wants his co-stars to perform a dark satire he's written. When new recruit Divine Eye (Clarence Maclin) joins the cast, he disrupts the group with his ideas for an outlandish comedy where he gets to recite Hamlet's famous soliloquy.
The auditions and rehearsals are light and even funny. And Divine G remains optimistic and helpful to his brothers. But when the sledgehammer of life hits hard, it seems all their hard work will be for nothing. This last act is painful, but deeply authentic. As much as these men care about their performances and inner lives, the outside world simply doesn't. They may earn some freedom performing on stage, but it won't last long. America cares more about locking up Black men than helping them.
It would have been so easy for the film's white director to pat himself on the back and make a nice movie about performance and community. And Hollywood probably would have rewarded him for it. But as he explained after my screening, the multi-year process to make this film forced him to change his process. He collaborated with the film's many former inmates to give it real authenticity. Several of its deepest moments are improvised, but based on their real pain.
Still, the film refuses to wallow in the suffering. It breaks you down but builds you back up. This is not a story of triumph over a corrupt system, but of art's power to keep the system from crushing the souls of its captives. It may not always be a feel-good movie, but you feel will be genuine.
