A thoughtful US prison story that swerves felon-style yard fights for rehearsal-room revelations, Greg Kwedar’s powerful reality-based drama explores the redemptive power of community drama in the otherwise brutal life of Sing Sing maximum-security jail.
Colman Domingo’s John, the talented theater-group top dog, finds himself challenged by smart, volatile newbie Eye (Clarence ‘Divine Eye’ Maclin), whose explosive rage (and the knife in his waistband) threatens to get them shut down. A film that concentrates on the prisoner, not their crime, Sing Sing’s grainy, up-close 16mm camerawork gives the central pair’s friction-filled relationship a keen intimacy.
