Film review: What gives Sing Sing its emotional heft is many roles are played by former prisoners

Colman Domingo puts in a career-best performance in Sing Sing

A still from Sing Sing

• Sing Sing
• ★★★★☆
• Cinematic release

Filmed in a number ofdecommissioned correctional facilities in the US, Sing Sing (15A) is inspired by the Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) program at New York’s notorious Sing Sing maximum security prison.

Colman Domingo plays Divine G, a man convicted of a crime he didn’t commit, who channels his grief and anger into philosophical plays staged by a theatrical group comprised entirely of inmates.

A serious man (he fancies himself as Hamlet) who writes serious plays, Divine G is unsettled by the arrival of new inmate Clarence (Clarence Maclin, playing himself), who — perhaps understandably, given the grim surroundings — suggests that a little comedy might lighten the mood.

And so the theatrical group find themselves rehearsing the multi-genre time-travel spoof Breakin’ the Mummy’s Code (which even finds room for Hamlet), but Greg Kwedar’s film is more concerned with the real-life roles and personas the prisoners adopt as they try to adapt to a life locked away from the world.

That’s a fascinating set-up in its own right, but what gives Sing Sing its emotional heft — and which only gradually becomes apparent — is that many of the roles are played by former prisoners who came through the RTA program whilst incarcerated in Sing Sing itself.

Colman Domingo puts in a career-best performance as the leader of the pack, but he gets very strong support from Clarence Maclin, Sean Johnson (playing himself), and Sean San José as Divine G’s tragic creative muse, Mike-Mike.