If you’re an awards group that hands out a prize for best ensemble acting in a movie, there’s not a lot of reason to look further this year than Sing Sing, a remarkable film about a group of men who find their calling—or at least a release—by joining an acting group while they’re incarcerated in the New York maximum-security prison.
The acting group really does exist: it’s part of the Rehabilitation Through the Arts program at Sing Sing, which has been going on for nearly 30 years in prisons across New York. And many of the men we see in this film are, themselves, alumni of the program, including one of the main supporting figures, Clarence Maclin, who goes by the name “Divine Eye.” Here, Maclin is recruited to join the group when our lead character, Divine G, sees there’s a serious and artistic intensity in Maclin, though it’s one that’s exceedingly rough and volatile. And as you might expect from someone who’s both an actor and has been incarcerated, Maclin plays this role magnificently, as we see the small movements he makes to embrace his ability to have real emotions without losing control, and to realize what he can unlock through engaging with art.
Even more astonishing, though, is Colman Domingo, nominated a year ago for an Oscar for Rustin, and a near-lock to be up again this year for this film. He’s our lead, Divine G, based on a real man named John Whitfield, who is also one of the credited writers for Sing Sing. Domingo has an unnatural ability to appear as if he is genuinely, truly feeling all of the things his character is experiencing in ways many of our biggest movie stars could never approach, with even tiny curves in his lips holding deep, deep pockets of emotion. Divine G is in Sing Sing for a crime he didn’t commit, and we see how he must maintain some level of hope in a world that cares almost nothing about him. In a year that had a handful of great male performances, Domingo’s the best of them all.
Sing Sing is in theaters.
