Greg Kwedar’s “Sing Sing”

Sing Sing (2023) - Greg Kwedar, United States

“…it falls just short of being a great film but the performances are outstanding…”

★★★★

We’ve seen quite a few films that make use of non-professional actors (Bicycle Thieves, City of God, Paisan) which tends to give the films a more naturalistic, documentary feel. Here, Kwedar has cast professional actors Colman Domingo and Paul Raci, but a majority of the cast are real-life ex-convicts. Across the board, the performances are fantastic but the film lacks the naturalistic feel which I think is down to the screenplay by Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar. It feels overly scripted where improvisation, particularly with the cast’s first hand experience would have greatly benefitted the film.

However, the film is good. Taking inspiration from the Rehabilitation Through the Arts program at New York’s Sing Sing prison, it tells the story of the impact of this program on prisoners’ lives but it touches on more universal topics, particularly male communication. John “Divine G” Whitfield (Colman Domingo) has been incarcerated for a crime he didn’t commit and has embraced the arts program acting almost as a co-sponsor with Brent Buell(Paul Raci), an RTA instructor. He’s bookish and methodical spending time working on putting together his case for appeal while also supporting fellow inmates in their own appeals, but after several failures, he’s a hair’s breath away from collapse. A new addition to the group, Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin (playing himself) has all but lost hope of a life outside prison and is, on the surface, a more visceral character, a pitbull of a man. Between the two men, they make something of a whole and this relationship is at the core of the film.

Overall, the films gets a lot right. It feels sincere if somewhat stilted, the program itself is potent and has wider benefits and from a meta standpoint, the making of this film itself is inspiring. Commendably, the cast and crew of the film were paid the same salary. It tells a great story but for me, it falls just short of being a great film but the performances are outstanding and I hope to see the cast (both professional and amateur) in future productions.