Sing Sing Humanizes the Incarcerated

 

  

SING SING (2024)

Directed by Greg Kwedar

A24, 107 minutes, R (language)

★★★★ ½

 

Sing Sing is one of the most infamous prisons in the United States. Located in Ossining, New York, it was once home to “Old Sparky” (electric chair), which dispatched 614 convicted criminals to the hereafter between 1891-1963.* Yet, it has also been the home to innovative programs such as a theatre project known as Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA), which is the subject of this very fine and moving film. Director Greg Kwedar and Clint Bentley wrote the screenplay with assistance from (among others) Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin and John “Divine G” Whitfield who were once inmates in Sing Sing and veterans of the RTA. Nine other actors also served time in Sing Sing.

On screen, we quickly learn that Divine G (Colman Domingo) is the star playwright, lead actor, and leading spirit of the RTA. The group has just finished a Shakespeare play under the direction of Brent Buell (Paul Raci). The group can’t decide on a new play, so G is tasked with writing a new one. He also tries to recruit Divine Eye (Maclin playing himself) into the RTA. To say Eye has attitude is an understatement. He’s innately intelligent but inside the joint he’s a don’t-mess-with-me loner and tough guy. He says he wants nothing to do with RTA but G knows a phony when he sees one. G discusses matters with his cellmate “Mike Mike” (Sean San Jose) and follows his advice to challenge Divine Eye. He does and Eye shows up as the group discusses what G should write. Eye is all bad news, but it is he who suggests a comedy.

A comedy indeed. How do you feel about some of the greatest stage soliloquies stitched together in a comedic romp? How will G react to Brent’s decision to cast Eye in the play’s only dramatic role? G is shaken, but he reluctantly becomes Eye’s tutor. To simplify a whole lot of moving story development, the two also become friends, especially after Mike Mike dies of an aneurysm. Can you say “a star is born behind bars?” G will also tutor Eye in writing his clemency appeal and about losing the chip on his shoulder. But, like many of us, G is smarter in giving advice than in assessing his own situation.

G is also up for clemency and despite glowing recommendations from prison staff and administrators, makes two fatal mistakes. First, he insists that another person did the crime for which he has been incarcerated. Second, he takes credit for the RTA in a prideful way. The lead commissioner of the clemency board (Sharon Washington) asks him if he thinks he is a good actor, G says he’s learned a lot about acting from Brent and the RTA. Her next question is, “Are you acting now?” G is stunned and instantly aware that he has screwed up. It’s a clemency hearing after all, meaning an appeal for forgiveness. Sure enough, his request is denied. It stings even more when Divine Eye’s appeal is granted and he is released.

G is hurt and reacts like Eye might have. In the following weeks he says the RTA is BS, swears, rips up his cell, tries to provoke Eye, gets tossed into solitary, and isolates himself when he’s out. But RTA is in his soul; he apologizes and resumes RTA duties. When he is paroled seven years later, guess who greets him on the outside.

Cinematographer Pat Scola is an unsung hero in making Sing Sing., which garnered praise in festivals and independent cinemas. Colman got a Best Actor nomination and Maclin a Best Supporting Actor nod. Neither won, but merely getting nominated is pretty amazing for a film made for less than $2 million and featuring former prisoners. Scola’s camera humanizes the men inside the “joint” and lingers on how relationships are built under stressful and depressing situations. Scola and Kwedar also had the good luck to get inside the Downstate Correctional Facility** months after it was decommissioned. Sing Sing does appear in the film, but only its exteriors as it still houses nearly 1,600 prisoners. Downstate looked and felt like the inside of a real medium/maximum prison, complete with cellblocks, heavily screened views of life outside, and drab interiors.*** Scola’s use of 16 mm filmstock gives the film a gritty, grainy look.

I highly recommend this film, as it’s truly a superior effort. My only beef is that mixing professional actors with ex-cons often makes interactions too polite, a veritable Hawthorne effect.

 

Rob Weir

* New York abolished its death penalty.

** If you driven west on I-84, the razor-wired Downstate facility is on your right. It was closed in 2002. On your left you will see the older Fishkill Correctional Facility, which still jails medium- and maximum-security prisoners because it’s larger.

*** I know something about the inside of prisons as I once worked in probation/parole services.