Sing Sing (2024)

Domingo Coleman plays Divine G one the founders of a prison theatrical group in Sing Sing Prison. As they finish up their production of A Midsummer's Night Dream they begin to plot their next production and welcome some new members.

This is more a slice of life then a big dramatic story. Yes, somethings happen, and there is drama but mostly this is a look at the men finding solace and hope in performing in a play. It is a film filled with staggering levels of humanity and a real sense of being lived.

Going in I knew the film was based on a true story, but I didn't know more than that. I say that because there was a moment when the various inmates- who we had seen earlier in scenes- introduce themselves as the audition for the roles in the play and it suddenly occurred to me that these are the real guys playing themselves.  It was a deeply emotional moment that changed the film for me which stopped being a "Hollywood" drama and instead became a docudrama of the realist sort.

What is amazing is that all the guys are fantastic. I know Diego Coleman is being mentioned for an Oscar, but what Oscar needs to do is recognize all these guys and the program because they freaking hit it out the park and then some.

I'm not going to say the film is perfect, it isn't. It wanders dramatically, things are left unsaid, as if we are just seeing moments, but at the same time the film has an emotional power that is unmatched. If the film wants us to feel for the men in prison and make the case that giving them something like RTA (Rehabilitation Through Art) will change them for the better, it does so in spades. It doesn't do it big and loud, but in quiet emotional moments that result in muffled sobbing at the end of the public screening this afternoon when two men who became friends hugged.

This film is an emotional power house with much to say. It is a film that is vitally needed and needs to be seen so that hearts and minds can be changed, and most importantly so that audience can meet som great men who will forever become friends and live in their hearts.