Sing Sing

Greg Kwedar follows up his impressive debut, Transpecos, with this docufiction picture set in the infamous maximum-security prison that gives the movie its title. Colman Domingo (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Candyman, Rustin) plays John “Divine G” Whitfield, a middle-aged man incarcerated for a crime he didn't commit who is a foundational member of a vibrant theater program where prisoners find community and purpose. Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin plays himself when he was in Sing Sing, a tough and emotionally guarded prisoner who joins the troupe playing Hamlet in an original time-traveling musical comedy called Breakin’ the Mummy’s Code. The film is based on the Rehabilitation Through the Arts program at Sing Sing, right down to the story and production details of Breakin’ the Mummy’s Code. The screenplay is written by Kwedar and his usual collaborator, Clint Bentley (the duo also co-wrote Transpecos and Bentley’s 2021 directorial debut, Jockey), with Maclin and the real John "Divine G" Whitfield collaborating on the story. Aside from Domingo and Paul Raci (Sound of Metal, Butcher's Crossing), most of the men who play the prisoners are alumni of the program playing semi-fictionalized versions of themselves during their time incarcerated in Sing Sing.

All this blending of fact and fiction gives the picture a kind of verisimilitude that isn't necessarily guaranteed when a young filmmaker attempts to tell a "real life story" using many of the actual people involved in this way. As a story, some of the narrative beats and scenes of emotional conflict may feel a bit rote, but Kwedar is able to authentically capture the artistic release the program gave these men and the transcendent feeling they must have experienced recreating it for the movie. Domingo and Maclin both give outstanding performances. I just hope if Domingo gets Oscar-nominated, they don't use a clip from John's emotional breakdown at the play's dress rehearsal to showcase his performance and instead show the scene of a parole hearing where John must answer a contentious question as to whether all his acting experience means the board should be less trusting that the person he presents to them is his "real self." These two clips perfectly illustrate the difference between generic melodrama and truly inspired acting, writing, and directing.