Sing Sing

Grade: A-

It’s impossible for me to write about Sing Sing without mentioning Ghostlight, out earlier this year. The latter is about an average Joe construction worker who, with no acting experience, finds himself starring in a community theatre production of Romeo and Juliet. Sing Sing involves a prison theatre troupe that puts on a play twice a year. Both movies involve nonprofessional but endlessly passionate new actors eager to put on a show – and both reinforce the healing, therapeutic power of the stage. They make beautiful bookends for one another.

Heading up the group in Sing Sing, as a self-touting “founding member,” is “Divine G” Whitfield (Colman Domingo). These inmates are part of what’s called the Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) program. Naturally, not everyone is immediately keen on acting, so some convincing and recruiting needs to happen. One of the more reluctant holdouts is the aggressive “Divine Eye,” though Colman’s Divine G sees something in him.

This time around, they are performing an original play whipped up by the director over the weekend. It’s a fusion of as many of the topics talked about at the pre-production meeting as possible: time travel, Shakespeare characters, Robin Hood themes, gladiators, Freddy Krueger, and more. Meanwhile, there’s a subplot concerning Divine G. He didn’t commit the crime that he is in Sing Sing for, and is getting his ducks in a row for the next parole hearing. He’s caught off guard in the interview when he’s asked “are you ‘acting’ or putting on a performance right now, or being sincere?”

Considering at least half the movie’s cast had never acted before, the results are surprisingly convincing. I’d liken it to Nomadland, which had a couple of known established actors (Frances McDormand, David Strathairn), but mostly “real people.” Paul Raci (Sound of Metal) does lovely work as the director (and sometimes playwright) of these productions. Performances are grounded and authentic, from both the actors playing characters and the real-life former Sing Sing inmates playing versions of themselves. I guess you could say that’s also a case of an actor doing a character.

At the center of the film, carrying everything, is Colman Domingo in one of the best performances of the year. In the course of 106 minutes, he is happy, angry, grieving, hopeful, jealous, supportive, optimistic, and so on. Though he’s the star, he is generous and respectful with the focus – always letting someone else take the lead when he’s not the primary character in the scene. For multiple reasons, there is a (perhaps unavoidable) Shawshanky feel about Sing Sing. It also meanders a bit, and contains weighty moments that don’t always feel earned – but when it regains focus and the story moves forward, there’s nothing better. All around the world, there’s a collective of theatre people doing the thing for very little or no money, but having the same fires in their bellies as Broadway and the West End. Ghostlight and Sing Sing are love letters to them.

Grade: A-