A24’s latest feature Sing Sing isn’t the first movie based on a real-life story to feature actual people from the true tale within its cast – and nor will it be the last. However, there’s something really special about how they are used here that makes this prison drama one of the year’s most beautifully affectionate, authentic, and sincere films.
Based on the real-life ‘Rehabilitation Through the Arts’ (RTA) program at the Sing Sing maximum security prison in New York, we follow the story of John ‘Divine G’ Whitfield (portrayed by Euphoria’s Colman Domingo). Imprisoned for a crime that he claims he didn’t commit, John finds purpose by acting in the RTA’s small theater group alongside other incarcerated men, the majority of which are played by former inmates who were actually a part of that program.
