Greg Kwedar’s new film Sing Sing, based on Brent Buell’s nonfiction book, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, to high acclaim. This resulted in the buzziest indie studio to currently be in the game, A24 picking it up for distribution. It has slowly been trickling out to theaters this summer, with a recent report implying A24 might hold the film from wider distribution this summer, instead positioning the film with a more awards-season friendly late 2024 release. Will this matter? It could. A24 should have known better than to release Sing Sing in the summer anyway. A24 has something special here.

John “Divine G” Whitfield (Colman Domingo) is a published author and playwright currently imprisoned in the infamous maximum security prison Sing Sing for a crime he likely did not commit. He has been there for many years. During his time there, he has been integral to the creation of the Rehabilitation Through the Arts program – a theatre group within the prison where a group of inmates will put on live theatrical performances, and we follow them through the creation of one.

Colman Domingo has been around for awhile now, and has always gravitated toward interesting, emotionally compelling work, and Sing Sing is no exception. His performance here is memorable and strong. He’s not going for big and showy, everything here is pretty understated for the most part. We learn the most about him out of all the other inmates, but you can absolutely feel his and their trauma and how their pasts have informed the people they are now.

I had a nice little surprise during the closing credits of this film. Sing Sing was shot on location, at this titular prison, and a majority of the cast we see are current or former inmates of Sing Sing. Everyone here but Domingo and Paul Raci (who you may remember from 2020’s Oscar nominated Sound of Metal), has lived a version of this. It kind of reminds me of what Chloe Zhao’s Oscar winning Nomadland did a few years ago, and makes the film interesting from an anthropological perspective. I am confident in saying the film would have had a lot to offer without this, however.

Clarence Maclin, who plays a character dubbed ‘Divine Eye’, a version of a life he lived in the Sing Sing prison, is a supporting cast standout, and all that went into this puts him in a strong position for an Oscar season narrative, and I could definitely see the actor riding that to at least a nomination, if not a win. He’s excellent here, and it would be such a compelling headline to see a onetime prisoner become an Oscar nominated actor. I could see it happening!

It also brought to mind the excellent film Ghostlight, from earlier this year, which is kind of about the same thing – the healing power of theatre. How when one finds a community of people with a common goal, like putting on a theatrical production, that can help people who are dealing with something emotionally difficult, work through their emotions and come to terms with what’s happening around them. I think Ghostlight is a better and more emotionally powerful film than Sing Sing, but the two are doing something entirely different from one another. And as someone whose life has been saved a number of times by the magic of live theater, I think both films are pretty close to essential viewing.

In the end, Sing Sing is a fascinating, beautifully acted and deeply heartfelt film about redemption and the power of community and art. It’s a bit of a tough watch at times, but you definitely will leave this one feeling emotionally fulfilled. If I had a complaint, maybe it drags a little bit toward the halfway point and it has about four different endings before it actually ends. But then you see actual archival footage through the end titles of performances these people have mounted, and it certainly gives the viewer a deeper emotional appreciation for what they’ve just seen. I definitely can see Sing Sing becoming a major force in the upcoming awards season, and when it does, it will be well deserved.