Divine G, imprisoned at Sing Sing for a crime he didn’t commit, finds purpose by acting in a theatre group alongside other incarcerated men in this story of resilience, humanity, and the transformative power of art.

The setting of a prison is often a really solid basis for excellent movies, with the genre naturally lending itself to such strong themes as the nature of masculinity, futility of violence and rehabilitation vs punishment. ‘Sing Sing’ is another solid entrant into the genre from second time feature director Greg Kwedar, with its focus on a group of prisoners who take part in an acting program adding a fresh take to a familiar genre. It is based loosely on real life events at the actual Sing Sing prison in New York state, where a program has been set up and found some success in rehabilitating prisoners through acting.

In this movie, Kwedar has mostly cast former prisoners (some of whom went through the acting program at Sing Sing in real life), alongside Colman Domingo and Paul Raci, who play a talented prisoner and the acting coach respectively. This decision works really well as not only are the prisoners talented performers, but they have real life experience to draw on and that lends the movie a more authentic and grittier feel than you may have got with a standard approach of casting ‘normal’ actors. It’s primary focus is on the difficulties of being inside and it’s well written script delivers several strong dialogue scenes where the characters open up to each other about their circumstances and their feelings – a difficult thing to do for men in the prison system.

It shows how the acting program gives these men a purpose and an outlet, and there’s a drive behind the narrative as they build towards developing and putting on their own performance. I really liked the score, which is gentle and moving and in some respects reminiscent of the type of score Clint Eastwood uses in some of his movies, and Colman Domingo is truly great in the central role, further cementing himself as one of the finest actors around. My very perhaps unfair criticism is I felt it might have been more powerful had Domingo’s character been guilty of his crimes, as the wrongly convicted man trope is overly familiar by now, although I accept that desire gives him an extra motive for his acting.

‘Sing Sing’ is a very good movie based on a positive experiment within the U.S. prison system, with important points to make on the rehabilitation vs punishment debate. It largely came and went in UK cinemas but it’s worth seeking out if you can.

Rating: 4/5

Directed By: Greg Kwedar

Starring: Colman Domingo, Paul Raci, Clarence ‘Divine Eye’ Maclin, Sean San José, David “Dap” Giraudy, Patrick “Preme” Griffin, Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez and Sean “Dino” Johnson

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt28479262/