R | 1h 45m | July 12, 2024
“Sing Sing” is being touted as one of the greatest prison dramas ever, but I think “The Shawshank Redemption” takes that honor. I would call “Sing Sing” the greatest prison semi-documentary, due to the fact that many of the roles are former prison inmates playing versions of themselves.
Director Greg Kwedar’s M.O.
Greg Kwedar’s “Jockey” (2022), a film about the world of horse racing, was anchored by lead-actor Clifton Collins Jr., but many of the film’s other jockeys were the real deal. Kewdar repeated this formula in “Sing Sing” by casting a couple of professional actors (Colman Domingo, Paul Raci, both Oscar nominees) for the leads. Then he cast actual, formerly incarcerated alumni of the real-life RTA prison theater program, to play versions of themselves.The main story focuses on the friendship between RTA alum John “Divine G” Whitfield (Domingo) and Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin, playing a version of himself.
Divine G is a prisoner at the maximum-security prison Sing Sing, innocent of the crime he was incarcerated for. He immerses himself in writing and prison activism—he’s an author, playwright, jailhouse lawyer, and a founding member of the prisoner-led theater company RTA (Rehabilitation Through the Arts).
The Facilitator
The story kicks off with the RTA actors workshopping a new production. Brent (Paul Raci) is the The group’s facilitator. This is a wheelhouse role for Raci, who played an addiction therapist at a home for the deaf in “The Sound of Metal.”
As an actor, my least favorite thing in the world were acting-class warm-up improv exercises like, “Everyone walk around like you’ve just won the lottery! Ok, now be zombies!” Ugh. But in “Sing Sing,” this kind of activity, for men who live in tiny cells, with nothing, breathing stagnant, toilet-smelling air for decades on end—this is absolute freedom.
Group Therapy
Being the most powerful, Divine Eye’s character arc and development is front and center throughout. He starts from a place of disempowered cynicism, ferocious vigilance, hair-trigger violence, and no hope for redemption. He freaks out onstage when the director, setting up the blocking for the play, has another prisoner walk behind him. You don’t let people walk behind you in prison; it’s a potential death sentence. He has a lot to learn, and a lot of trust to grow.
Uplifting
We live in a time when many Hollywood offerings focus on character devolution. Think Michael Corleone in “The Godfather,” Saul Goodman in “Better Call Saul,” Ragnar Lothbrok from the “Vikings” TV show, and of course, Walter White in “Breaking Bad.” The characters spiral deeper and deeper into darkness.“Sing Sing” offers the opposite evolution, and it’s refreshing, to say the least. It’s a testament to the transformational power of theater, and it shows how change is absolutely possible and available. Friendship, community, and taking on challenging collaborative theatrical projects can spur transformation.
Having been involved with, and facilitated the work in that community for many years, I’ll quote my own review, just to give you a taste:
“I’ve witnessed an Air Force spec-ops combat controller exorcising demons he carried from having ordered bomb strikes that wiped out villages. I’ve seen the work of a professional boxer who killed a man in the ring. Men’s work is devastatingly powerful wherever it takes place.
“But to publicly present, finally, ‘The Work,’ about the healing work that happens on men’s weekends, there really is no better stage than legendary lockdown, Folsom State Prison. Johnny Cash put the darkness of Folsom in our national consciousness in 1955, and the documentary ‘The Work’ is here over 60 years later to announce, from Folsom, the unbelievable light, heat, and power of Men’s Work to the world.”
See “The Work” and see “Sing Sing.” Feel uplifted. Feel abundant hope in these dark times!
