Critical Recommendation: Sing Sing

One quote from Greg Kwedar's Sing Sing struck me like a blow across the face - we're here to become human again. A24's prison drama is an incredibly moving testament to the power of art and how it can ferry us across the troubled waters of life, something the men of Sing Sing Correctional Facility know plenty about. I've discussed it before, but I have a past in theater, and even if I've never known life behind bars, I caught glimpses of how art can transport you to another place when you're going through hardship - and how much more so when you're in jail? The majority of the cast of Sing Sing are themselves ex-cons, and I was amazed that this film's commitment to redemption and restoration went beyond the silver screen. I'm also amazed by the heart of Sing Sing, its commitment to portraying people rather than just characters. In face-value terms, this movie is about a man named Divine G and his journey to distance himself from difficult past and present realities through involvement in a small, prison-based theater group that prioritizes rehabilitation through the arts. In abstract ones, it's a movie about becoming human again.

Sing Sing finds this beautiful and heartbreaking juxtaposition between the beautiful imagination of a stage play and the somber realities of life in prison. Each conflicting emotion heightens the other rather than competing for space, an outcome helped along by a focused screenplay and a wholehearted commitment to authenticity - speaking of which, the dialogue in Sing Sing is some of the most natural and conversational I've ever heard in a movie. It's delivered not like actors delivering lines, but rather like people talking, an effect I've rarely, if ever, seen or heard in any other movie. Not only does Sing Sing feel completely natural, but it also digs up a living and breathing sense of camaraderie among its performers. You'll root for Divine G and his peers because this theater program is all these men have anymore. They won't have much left if their higher-ups take it from them, or even if they take it from each other.

The cinematography of Sing Sing is very old-school for a movie released in 2023, evidently trying to be evocative of other prison dramas like The Shawshank Redemption. This gifts it a tangibly timeless quality. You could tell me that it was released either yesterday or twenty years ago, and I'd probably believe you both times if my memory failed me. Its heart is likewise timeless. Political and social boundaries shift, but human empathy or the lack thereof never does. Hope and hopelessness are the same today as they were thirty years ago, and they'll be the same tomorrow, too.

Too often, we use labels because they're more convenient than forcing ourselves to admit that a certain people group may actually be made up of people. Poor people are...all criminals. People who vote differently from me are...a threat to democracy. And people in prison... must have deserved it. Sing Sing blows perceptions, not unlike these, completely out of the water. It is not populated by stereotypes. It is populated by people, people with memories, fears, hopes, and dreams. People with a goal of putting on a stage performance, something that gives both them and the movie they're a part of purpose. Sing Sing is an incredibly touching movie from beginning to end, and it's an ever-so-sincere movie that cares very deeply about its subject matter, focusing intimately not necessarily on its world, but how its characters view that world. It's kind of like a stage play, now that I think about it. You can choose to either drag yourself and those around you down to reality, or you can choose to allow yourself to dream.

Sing Sing is a beautiful celebration of the redemptive power of art in every way, down to its cast of largely self-portraying ex-cons. All in all, it's authentic in a way few other movies are or even can be. I'm amazed that it doesn't get talked about more, even amongst fans of A24. Truthfully, it's hard for me to merely sit here and try to conjure up words to describe how it affected me, and what I will say is that I felt less like I was watching actors and more like I was watching people. Sing Sing wears its humanity on its sleeve in some crystal-clear and, more importantly, believable ways. Too many movies seem interested in critiquing our imperfections as the human race. Sing Sing knows that it's oftentimes more effective and always more affecting to celebrate what makes us beautiful instead.

Sing Sing - 10/10

Ecclesiastes 3:11