SPOILER WARNING: The next article comprises main spoilers for Sing Sing. In the event you haven’t already, you may watch it streaming with a Max subscription.
Although Sing Sing was thought of one of many finest motion pictures of 2024, I by no means received an opportunity to see the critically acclaimed A24 movie on the large display (or in any respect final 12 months). Effectively, after I came upon it was going to be one of many new and up to date motion pictures streaming in March 2025, I made certain to alter that as quickly as attainable. And I did, and I’m grateful for that.
Going into Greg Kwedar’s transferring jail drama a few group of inmates who escape the truth of incarceration by taking part in a tight-knit theatre program, I anticipated it to be an amazing and highly effective expertise. Whereas the entire story of redemption, rebirth, and the significance of artwork applications on the soul was completely beautiful, there’s one delicate facet of the film that hit me onerous, and it’s all I’ve been in a position to consider…
I Knew Sing Sing Was Going To Be An Extremely Emotional And Highly effective Expertise, And It Was
After I first heard about Sing Sing someday final 12 months, I believed that this film had all the weather of a robust and emotional story: a revolutionary arts program, a person serving a jail sentence for a criminal offense he didn’t commit, characters studying how you can higher themselves and type significant relationships with their friends and the world round them. It had all the things you’d need in a drama. After lastly watching it, I can fortunately say that it was highly effective, it was emotional, and it was an expertise I received’t quickly overlook.
Primarily based on the real-life story of the Rehabilitation By way of the Arts (RTA) program at Sing Sing Most Safety Jail in New York State, the Oscar-nominated drama explores the resilience of the human spirit, the life-changing influence of the humanities, and the significance of human interplay, even within the hardest of settings and conditions. I laughed, I cried, and I used to be stunned extra occasions than I can rely.
And There Had been Lots Of Occasions After I Forgot The Film Was Set In A Jail
There have been numerous occasions all through Sing Sing after I utterly forgot this was a film set in jail. Colman Domingo’s Oscar-nominated efficiency as John “Divine G” Whitfield, Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin enjoying a fictionalized model of himself, different former inmates portraying themselves, and Paul Raci’s tackle theatre director Brent Buell have been all so transformative and transfixing that I merely noticed this as a film about actors struggling to placed on an bold manufacturing of a time-traveling comedy with a number of storylines.
That is very true early on when the RTA group is attempting to resolve which play they need to placed on for this season’s manufacturing or within the last stretch making ready for Breakin’ the Mummy’s Code. They appear much less like a gaggle of convicts spending years, a long time, or the remainder of their lives behind bars and extra like a hungry group of actors attempting to push themselves and one another to new heights.
However All The Refined Reminders Of The Actors’ Incarceration And Life In Jail Hit Me So Onerous
What actually received me whereas watching Sing Sing was the inclusion of all these delicate reminders that whereas these have been actors engaged on their craft and attempting to make a change of their lives, that is nonetheless a film set in a most safety jail.
There’s a scene early on within the film following Divine G as he feeds some geese within the jail yard, and it was actually one of the vital lovely and peaceable issues I’ve seen. Simply because the calm scene reaches its peak, an alarm goes off and all of the inmates fall to the bottom, and we’re reminded that it is a story about actors but additionally prisoners. Afterward, Divine G has to take care of a random search of his cell, and it’s the identical feeling over again. What makes each of those scenes work so nicely is the truth that not numerous consideration is drawn to them; they simply come off as part of life.
I Was Blown Away By The Tales Of The Characters Balancing The Escape Of Artwork And Chilly Reminders Of Actuality
One other factor I actually appreciated about Sing Sing was the way in which the characters balanced the escape their artwork gave them and the chilly reminders of actuality (just like the examples I discussed above). All through the film, I used to be blown away by how Divine G, Divine Eye, and different RTA actors managed to maintain all of it collectively, at the least for essentially the most half.
There’s a entire part close to the top of the film the place Divine G loses it, lashes out at everybody, and sinks into an remoted pit of melancholy and despair, however that’s solely after he faces one tough scenario after one other. The dying of his finest buddy, the failed clemency listening to, Divine Eye’s upcoming release- all of it will get one of the best of him, and that’s okay. He’s solely human! The emotional and religious breakdown introduced on by the overwhelming actuality of jail life was astounding and actually took my breath away.
Equally, Sing Sing Additionally Had This Nice Sound Design That By no means Let You Overlook About The Actual World For Lengthy
Although I can completely see why Dune: Half Two took dwelling the Oscar for Greatest Sound in the course of the 2025 Academy Awards ceremony, after watching Sing Sing, I’m shocked the unimaginable A24 film wasn’t at the least nominated. The recreation of one of many nation’s most infamous prisons was made all of the extra plausible due to the sensible sound design all through the movie. And there’s one facet of this that received me essentially the most: all of the sounds past the jail fences that hold reminding you of the surface world.
The sound of a practice passing by the jail may be heard a number of occasions, as can birds that may come and go as they please. Crickets, cicadas, and frogs at evening attain out like a pure symphony as Divine G and his fellow inmates are left considering their lives at evening. Much like scenes reminding me that this was in reality set in a jail, these sounds have been stark reminders of actuality.
Sing Sing is severely one of the vital uplifting motion pictures I’ve watched in years, and it is an expertise I received’t quickly overlook.