A24’s Sing Sing, directed by Greg Kwedar, is without question one of the year’s best films. Vulnerable, raw, and wholly transparent as it delivers a brilliant examination of John H. Richardson’s novel, Sing Sing Follies (A Maximum-Security Comedy): And Other True Stories. Based on real stories, yes, but from the moment the film opens, it’s unmistakably apparent that the intent isn’t to capitalize off existing stories for Hollywood’s gain but to provide a story that matters.
Starring the incomparable Colman Domingo in one of his most exemplary roles to date, the actor’s brilliant means of subtly conveying deeply engrossing feelings is no small feat. In fact, it’s groundbreaking in a way that underscores how someone can escape so effectively in a role that requires acting within the character’s story, too.
Theatre arts is often an overlooked subject for those outside of the major. It’s easy for people who aren’t creative to look down on the subject matter and fail to comprehend how it could be a means of healing, growth, and the honor of a lifetime in more ways than one. As a film that’s set in prison (of the same name), there are quite a few haunting lines in Sing Sing, yet perhaps none more than when Domingo’s Divine G is asked if he’s acting now when he mentions the progress he’s made. The inability to comprehend how theatre, art, or even writing could help people touch upon the more vulnerable sides of their being isn’t something that can be explained but rather something that needs to be felt.
And, in every frame, A24’s Sing Sing ensures that the viewer feels the healing strength that’s unveiled in walking in someone else’s shoes—whether that’s in a theatrical landscape or through simply sitting in a circle wondering how a man can be beside them one moment and gone the next. In many ways, while the film shines with beats of comedy through its accurate depiction of how shows are put on, it excels in showing the audience why it’s so important for men to be vulnerable.
I specify men here because women aren’t the ones who are shunned for being emotional. Yes, people overdramatize our emotions and use them against us, but men are belittled in a way that forces so many of them to grow up thinking that they’re weak if they feel anything at all. The patriarchy is dangerous for this reason, as it forgets that there’s nothing more human than our ability to feel. Isn’t that what a heart is for—to ensure that we live and feel and experience things fully?
Therefore, anytime we get depictions of men allowing themselves to be vulnerable, my heart soars. It’s one less report of how vulnerability isn’t a weakness but a strength, and in A24’s Sing Sing, the vulnerability leaps off the screen, showing us just how significant and human it is to feel whatever life presents. Anger falls into this, too—frustration, excitement, confusion, speechlessness—from beginning to end, the film allows its characters to explore their emotions in a place where they’re physically confined. It authenticates the importance of creativity and how acknowledging our emotions could lead to art that impacts people and wholeheartedly spreads joy. It’s like a wildfire, a domino falling and signaling all others. Art and humanity go hand in hand to not only bring people closer but to allow us the means to understand each other beyond what lies on the surface, and the film underscores all of this beautifully through exceptional character work and acting.
Sing Sing will return to select theaters in January 2025.
First Featured Image Credit: ©A24