Why 'Sing Sing' is the feel good movie of the year
Colman Domingo and Paul Raci lead a stellar cast in the true story-based prison drama.
One of the most powerful tools of a movie is changing one’s mood. After all, they’re supposed to be an empathy machine: Making you think, feel something profound, or perhaps both. You can walk into the theater misguided by stress or completely bulldozed over by life, and then see something incredible. A collection of images with words written and spoken by human beings who have seen a thing or two, or in other words a cinematic production that did its job in full. They make you believe.
When I left Sing Sing, all I could do was hold back a few tears and smile, like I had seen something special; it was made for millions, but it felt like a personal pan pizza made just for me for a couple hours.
Keenly directed with an eye for the details by Greg Kwedar, the movie is adapted from two different novels-The Sing Sing Follies by John H. Richardson and Breakin the Mummy’s Code by Brent Buell-that tell the story of the RTA arts and theater rehabilitation program at the famed prison. A way for inmates to find their humanity again, the theater program was a ticket back to finding themselves. Or as the soulful D Dan (Sean Dino Johnson) urges his fellow castmates during rehearsal, “we’re here to become human again!” That’ll get a rise out of you.
Johnson is one of several cast members here who actually served time and participated in the RTA program, lending his talents to the film in a role that probably resembles his real life personality and attributes. If you’ve ever seen a big guy who most likely is a misunderstood teddy bear, that’s D Dan, his character’s name in the movie.
Others such as Sean San Jose (playing the lovable Mike Mike), Patrick Griffin, James Williams (Big E!), Camillo Lovacco, and many others fill the cast. In an unusual event, out of the principal cast, real lifers outnumber the actual actors. This just gives Sing Sing an authenticity that allows the story to sink in faster. It comes off as the real deal. Once you meet the personalities, the names they go by will make more sense.
Colman Domingo, one of the few actual actors in the cast, stuns as the proverbial leader of the theater group named Divine G: A wrongly incarcerated man who acts, writes, and helps organize the plays with Buell. He makes it so easy, slipping into someone else’s skin and bringing him to vivid life in a handful of seconds. He’s the first and last face we see.
The rest of the cast shines bright. Played remarkably by Paul Raci, Buell is the one who took the many ideas of the actors (time travel, western, comedy) and made them into a screenplay. Part coach and part writer, he’s the glue that keeps the possibility of art pursued rolling into the fellas. Like Domingo, Raci has such a natural approach to the role that it seems like dirty clothes inside a scene.
The axis of Sing Sing swings off Divine G taking up the task of finding new recruits for the program, a journey that leads him to Divine I (Clarence Maclin). The latter is a tough guy collector of sorts who perhaps has a few hidden talents and desires that a violent past has covered up. He connects and feuds all at once with Divine G, a more naturally trained actor who thinks, like his buddy Mike Mike, that this guy is there for insincere intentions.
But what he and the audience come to find out is that prison can be like a world in itself, one full of possibilities and encounters that could turn into a long term friendship. What Domingo and Maclin do in this film is simply amazing. They create a partnership on screen that allows the final scene of the movie to melt down the coldest cynic in the theater.
So much of Sing Sing, co-written by Kwedar and Clint Bentley, is unpredictable and leads by its own rhythm. You can tell why A24 is pushing it hard ahead of awards season. It’s difficult for certain aspects of a movie to keep you guessing without a gotcha tactic in play or some prerequisite notion that could stir the plot, but this movie just flows and finds its way with a story that doesn’t paint a feel-good image on the isolation of a life behind bars--yet still finds a way to be uplifting. Think of it as Shawshank Redemption if they focused on the theater program. Like that film, there’s an impact to be found if you let the film in close.
There’s too many great scenes to list. A scene of auditions is among my favorites, but a visit from a former participant in the program to the fellas before a big show will also bring some tears down. Anyone talking about their dog gets right to me. Raci’s Brent leading the men in a wake-up circle with workshopping mixed in should make you laugh. There’s a big chunk of this film that is funny in a deft way, which keeps the movie from being such a dark doldrum of affairs.
The MVP has to be Bryce Dessner’s evocative and layered score, music that lifts everything up on screen from the acting to the zing of the script. When a score is done right, none of the emotion is missed. I remember it swelling during the first 30 minutes, and thinking we had something different going on here. Warm music heats up a prison flick. Dessner, a guitarist in the wonderful band, The National, also scored the under-appreciated Joaquin Phoenix A24 film, C’Mon C’Mon.
Like the score, the film has an earnest patience. Scenes play out before a cut occurs. Nothing is rushed. Everything is allowed to breathe here, and the effect is the opposite of a summer movie. It’s an anytime of the year movie to be honest.
See it for Domingo’s brilliance and growing page of great roles. See it for Raci, who offers every role a signature grace. See it to discover hidden gems like the inmates who brought Shakespeare to life inside the walls that were supposed to lock away their passion and desire. When the writing and story are this good, movie stars aren’t necessary. You’re discovering them in the exact spot they rediscovered themselves.
My advice: Don’t wait on this one. See it immediately. A24 and NEON keep Hollywood genuine. The best movies match the hype that their studio sets for them. The best movies take a bad day and make it nice. The best movies make you think about a different form of compassion.
Yes indeed, Sing Sing is one of the best movies of the year.