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This week at The Tryon Theatre, we have “Sing Sing” (Kwedar 2023), a powerful and moving film celebrating the restorative catharsis of artistic expression, namely, dramatic performance. 

This film, based on true events, has received glowing acclaim from critics and audiences alike, heralding its sensitivity and depth of compassion. The reality that informs this film is the Rehabilitation Through the Arts program at the present-day Sing Sing maximum-security prison. The film follows the experience of a wrongfully imprisoned inmate, Divine G, who is participating in this dramatic arts program and finds new purpose, both practically and spiritually, in performance. 

This film’s story is told through a tight network of characters, some brought to life by professional actors and some birthed through performances from past graduates of the real life Rehabilitation Through the Arts program. Playing Divine G, the film’s protagonist, is the tremendously talented Coleman Domingo, an actor capable of incredible emotional nuance in his features and vocalizations, authentically human in the most complex but accessible of ways. This film revels in such a performance, with scenes of dialogue consisting of frequent close shots, the camera pressed in on these weary and worn faces. The compressed space of the prison is amplified in this tight cinematography and further heightens the enrapturing freedom found in any scene of space when the camera and the characters have room to breathe and room to perform. 

There are admittedly weighty themes present in any story of incarceration. But rarely is that heaviness contrasted by such optimism and joy as in “Sing Sing.” If anything, the resilient emotional buoyancy in this film may be more of a shock to an audience than any brutality one would associate with prison. “Sing Sing” is a film that focuses on redemption and restoration of the spirit, of finding happiness and hope in the most morose of environments. The language of this film contains all the raw emotion one would expect from prison. Still, the gentleness and sense of play employed by these rough men are beautiful to behold, a portrait of reclaiming innocence by choice, of healing through vulnerability. 

“Sing Sing” is shot with an intentional graininess and blur to its movement that conveys a feeling of authenticity, an almost documentarian perspective on the lives of these prisoners. The way the camera lingers with its subjects’ more emotive moments is intimate and curious, patiently allowing their facial expressions to evolve and communicate without words. This film’s cinematography mirrors its content, simultaneously rough and gentle, sublime in its efficacy. 

“Sing Sing” is a mature film, if only for its themes of redemption, a reflection of life necessary for appreciating the emotional rebirth depicted. However, “Sing Sing” is so earnest and uplifting a film that any viewer should be able to find a point of connection and compassion for these inmates. 

We hope to share this emotional journey with you soon!