Sing Sing: Magistral Domingo Colman (critic)
A powerful film on redemption by the theater, magnificently interpreted by the actor appointed to the Oscars and former prisoners bright.
“” “Prison is a factory that makes human animals”Said Edward Bunker in The beast against the wallsbitter and violent diving in the daily life of Saint Quentin. Change of jail and change of register. It is Sing Sing That the Greg Kwedar film takes place and the incarceration regime seems more ambiguous, less hard. No doubt because we follow John “Divine G” Whitfield, remarkably embodied by Colman Domingo.
Wrongly imprisoned, this detainee is at the heart of a reintegration program through the theater. Divine one day takes the risk of welcoming Clarence Maclin troop, a dealer whose presence will shake up the dynamics of the group. Together, they will write and mount an improbable piece mixing ancient Egypt of the gladiators, Freddy Krueger and even Hamlet. Their room is a capsule to forget the violence of the mitard and escape from the animal factory. It is above all an artistic and human epic that gives the film its emotional power, all the more strong since most of the roles are held by former prisoners beneficiaries of the program, all brightly bright.
On the boards, the prisoners fall their shell, try to get rid of the toxic virility specific to the prison environment. But this precious space remains fragile, threatened by latent violence and the spectra of the past. Beautifully filmed by Pat Scola, Sing Sing oscillates between tension and emotion. Some sequences seem to digress, but the incredible partition of Domingo, a perfect counterpoint to the chaotic energy of Maclin, maintains the course.
Of Greg Kwedar. With Colman Domingo, Sean San Jose, Clarence Maclin… Duration 1h47. Released January 29, 2025