KSL Movie Show review: “Sing Sing” is brilliant
Aug 16, 2024, 10:30 AM | Updated: 10:31 am
In "Sing Sing" an innocent actor goes to prison and decides to share his passion for the stage with his fellow inmates.
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SALT LAKE CITY — Actor Colman Domingo – remember that name.
He got a lot of attention in 2023 for two terrific performances. He played Bayard Rustin a behind-the-scenes leader of the Civil Rights Movement in “Rustin.”
Then, he took on the very difficult part of Mister in the most recent “The Color Purple.”
He will soon be playing Michael Jackson’s father, Joe, followed by a biopic on legendary singer Nat King Cole.
Yes, he is quite in demand.
But in the meantime, his latest effort is “Sing Sing,” where he stars as Divine G, a gifted playwright and actor who was sent to prison for a crime he didn’t commit.
Rather than go stir crazy, he helps found a group called Rehabilitation Through the Arts or RTA which teaches incarcerated people necessary life skills that can help them on the stage as well as on the stage of life.
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Here’s the amazing thing about this movie.
There are basically only two professional actors in this film — Domingo and Paul Raci.
The rest are former inmates who took part in the RTA program at the Maximum Security facility in Sing Sing when they were incarcerated.
Of special note are Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin and Sean San José. These two managed to go toe-to-toe with Domingo and Raci, at every step in this inspirational story.
True to life, the RTA members put on a play every six months for their fellow inmates and the community at large.
They’ve done Shakespeare before, but now they want to try their hand at comedy, which the stage director Brent Buell (Paul Raci) agrees to author an original zany play about a time traveler who goes to Egypt, the Wild West, meets Hamlet and even gets attacked by Freddy Krueger.
Yeah, the freaky guy from “Nightmare on Elm Street.”
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Novice Clarence Maclin takes on the Hamlet role with extraordinary raw power, but that’s because he’s basically been a gangster thug his entire life. However, his best scenes are warming up to the idea of acting, befriending Domingo’s character and actually becoming a decent human being in the process.
The bond that develops within this group is tangible, even more so when tragedy strikes.
Sure, it’s about the redemptive power of the arts, but it’s also a literal actor’s workshop featuring the unquestionable prowess of one, Colman Domingo, who is quickly becoming one of my favorite actors on the planet.
The man has mad skills and seems to have no problem sharing those skills with the rest of this rag-tag cast. As a result, “Sing Sing” is brilliant.
