---
title: "Sing Sing"
year: 2024
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/sing-sing"
fi1m_id: "sing-sing"
imdb_id: "tt28479262"
tmdb_id: 1155828
wikidata_id: "Q122335323"
fi1m_score: 84
critics_score: 82
critics_reviews: 13
published: "2026-09-09"
updated: "2026-09-18T08:37:58.577082+00:00"
region: "US"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Sing Sing (2024)

Directed by Greg Kwedar · 1h 47m · MPA R · Drama

## Identity

Sing Sing

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/sing-sing
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** sing-sing
- **IMDb ID:** tt28479262
- **TMDB ID:** 1155828
- **Wikidata ID:** Q122335323
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt28479262/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1155828, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q122335323

**Fi1m score: 84** · Critics 82 from 13 reviews

*In a sentence:* A prison film in which the hardest thing anyone is asked to do is close his eyes and say where he would rather be

> Greg Kwedar’s drama about a theatre programme inside a New York prison is patient, funny and quietly moving, and it is carried by Divine Eye’ Maclin, a former inmate who never once looks like he is acting. The plot around him is thinner than the rehearsal room.

## Synopsis

John ‘Divine G’ Whitfield (Colman Domingo) is serving time in Sing Sing, a maximum-security prison in New York State, for a crime he says he did not commit. Inside, he writes plays, helps other men with their legal paperwork and is the mainstay of Rehabilitation Through the Arts, a theatre programme run by volunteer director Brent Buell (Paul Raci). When the group votes to stage an original comedy rather than another tragedy, a new recruit arrives: Clarence ‘Divine Eye’ Maclin, a hard man from the yard who wants a part and does not want to be told how to play it. Most of the cast are former members of the real programme, playing men with their own names.

## Review

The film opens with Colman Domingo in a costume, on a stage, speaking Shakespeare to an audience we cannot see, and then cuts to him being locked back into a cell. That is the whole idea in two shots. John ‘Divine G’ Whitfield is in Sing Sing for a killing he maintains he did not commit, and while he waits for a clemency hearing he keeps himself upright by running the prison’s theatre group. Greg Kwedar directs from a screenplay he wrote with Clint Bentley, working from a story the two of them share with Whitfield and Divine Eye’ Maclin, who were both in the programme. Most of the faces on screen belong to men who have been through it too.

It is a very good film, and the reason is a decision Kwedar makes early and sticks to. The things prison films are usually about, the fights, the guards, the cell searches, happen at the edges of the frame or off it altogether. The camera stays in the rehearsal room, a bare hall with plastic chairs, and treats a man reading a line badly and then reading it better as an event worth our full attention. We were not sure this would hold for 107 minutes. It holds.

Pat Scola shoots close and handheld, in a soft grain, and rarely lets a face go until it has finished doing something. Ruta Kiskyte’s production design keeps the prison the colour of old paint and gives the group’s costume box the only bright things in the building. Desira Pesta dresses everyone in the same state-issue green until that box comes out, at which point grown men in cardboard armour become, briefly, the most vivid thing in the film. Bryce Dessner’s score is strings, used sparingly, and Parker Laramie cuts to the rhythm of the rehearsal rather than the script.

The scene that got us comes early. Brent Buell, the volunteer director played by Paul Raci, asks the men to close their eyes and describe somewhere they would rather be. One by one they do: a kitchen, a porch, a street. Scola holds on each face while the man speaks and Laramie does not cut away to anyone reacting. It moved us more than we expected, and what did it was not the words but the effort in the faces, men who have trained themselves for years to give nothing away, giving something away on purpose.

Divine Eye’ Maclin, playing Divine Eye, is the reason to see it. He arrives all shoulders and stare, treats the group as a soft option, and then is handed a Shakespeare speech and discovers he understands it. Maclin cannot be caught acting; there is no moment where you see him prepare. Domingo, beside him, is a professional among amateurs and it shows in both directions. He is generous, listening more than he speaks, and he has a breakdown scene late on that is technically superb. But you can see the technique, and once or twice we were watching an actor at work while the men around him were simply there. A minority of critics have made the same point and we think they are half right. Domingo is the film’s spine; Maclin is its pulse.

The plot outside the rehearsal room is where the film is weakest. Divine G’s clemency case is set up carefully and then handled in a hurry, and a development in the second half, which we will not describe, is dealt with in a couple of scenes when it needed a couple more. The play itself, an original comedy Buell writes for the group that jumps between periods and genres, is glimpsed rather than seen, and we wanted more of it. The film’s last movement reaches for a warmth it has mostly earned and slightly overreaches.

None of that spoiled it for us. Kwedar has made a prison film in which the tension is whether a man will say his lines in front of other men, and he has made that feel like a life-or-death matter, which for these men it more or less is. Buell himself appears in the cast. So do the Sing Sing walls, and the film does not pretend they go anywhere.

It is a 15 certificate and there is almost nothing in it a younger teenager could not watch; the rating is for language. See it with someone who thinks they know what a prison film is.

*Fi1m score 84, published 9 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

The reviews for Sing Sing are unusually settled: not one of the thirteen we have read is mixed or negative, and the praise lands in the same two places every time. First, Colman Domingo, whose performance as Divine G is called generous, magnetic and commanding by critic after critic. Second, the decision to cast former inmates from the Rehabilitation Through the Arts programme alongside him, with Clarence Maclin singled out most often as the ensemble’s discovery. Several critics note that the film avoids the usual prison-film shocks and that its best scenes are the least scripted ones, in the rehearsal room.

The spread is narrow. The nearest thing to dissent comes from Vulture, which finds the non-professional cast more compelling than Domingo and thinks the film struggles to be both a naturalistic ensemble piece and a star vehicle, and from Slant, which calls it humane but self-aware. Neither goes so far as to warn anyone off.

## Straight answers

**Is Sing Sing worth watching?**

*Sing Sing* is worth watching, and we scored it 84. It is a prison drama that stays in the rehearsal room rather than the yard, patient and often funny, carried by Divine Eye Maclin, a former inmate who never looks like he is acting. The plot outside that room is thinner, and the clemency storyline is hurried, but the film held us for all of its 107 minutes.

**How long is Sing Sing, and what is it rated?**

*Sing Sing* runs 1h 47m and is rated R by the MPA in the US. It is a drama film.

**Where can I watch Sing Sing in the US?**

*Sing Sing* is streaming on HBO Max, Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video and The Roku Channel in the US, and it is also available to rent from Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV from $4.99. It leaves HBO Max on 21 September. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**How violent or frightening is Sing Sing, and is it suitable for children?**

*Sing Sing* is a UK 15 certificate, and the rating is for language rather than violence; the fights, guards and cell searches of most prison films happen at the edges of the frame or off it. There is almost nothing in it a younger teenager could not watch. It is not frightening, and the squeamish have nothing to brace for.

**What should I watch after Sing Sing?**

After *Sing Sing*, try [*A Prophet*](https://film.one/film/a-prophet) (2009, Fi1m 86): A French prison as a school for one young man; harder, colder, unforgettable. Then [*Starred Up*](https://film.one/film/starred-up) (2013, Fi1m 84): A British prison drama built around a therapy group and a father; and [*Rustin*](https://film.one/film/rustin) (2023, Fi1m 68): Domingo again, this time carrying a whole film on his own shoulders.

### Reviews we read (21)

- **Los Angeles Times**, Katie Walsh (90/100, inferred): The critic calls the film a rare achievement of unique empathy and hand-turned humanity, crediting the years of research and the casting of RTA alumni alongside pros. They single out the emotional breakthroughs and personal growth the men experience through theater, especially Maclin’s star-is-born performance. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2024-07-12/sing-sing-review-colman-domingo-paul-raci-a24-prison)
- **Empire**, Helen O'Hara (85/100, inferred): The critic praises this empathetic drama about an inmate theater program at Sing Sing prison for showing how art can transform damaged lives and restore faith in humanity. They single out the authentic, nuanced performances by Colman Domingo and the real-life former prisoners for their warmth, humor, and emotional depth amid harsh surroundings. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/sing-sing/)
- **IndieWire**, Vikram Murthi (B+): Highlights Colman Domingo's shining performance in this true-life prison drama about the power of theater. Notes the invaluable authenticity brought by the largely non-professional cast of formerly incarcerated performers. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/sing-sing-movie-review-colman-domingo-a24-1235024536/)
- **Little White Lies**, Isaac Feldberg (4/4/4): Domingo and Maclin deliver powerhouse performances in this poignant drama exploring art’s transformative potential. It soars especially in its less scripted moments that ring with truth. [Read](https://lwlies.com/reviews/sing-sing)
- **Radio Times**, Kevin Harley (4/5): Kwedar subverts prison movie clichés with an affecting and thoughtful tale of creativity in the clink. It highlights the authenticity from casting real RTA alumni and the therapeutic process of production. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-lkzdbv/sing-sing/)
- **Time Out**, Whelan Barzey (80/100, inferred): A compassionate window into incarceration that commits to reality over shock value. It praises Domingo masterfully anchoring the ensemble of RTA alumni and the focus on joy and self-knowledge through creativity. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/sing-sing-review-2024)
- **Slant Magazine** (3/4): Calls it a humane if self-aware look at healing through art and collaboration, with noble intentions and vulnerable performances from its cast. Singles out the open partnership with formerly incarcerated individuals as especially laudable. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/sing-sing-review-colman-domingo/)
- **Vulture** (70/100, inferred): Argues the prison theater drama struggles to balance naturalistic urges with its star-vehicle ambitions, finding the non-professional actors more compelling than Colman Domingo. Singles out the film's insistence on the healing capacity of art as its saving grace. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/article/review-sing-sing-doesnt-need-a-movie-stars-touch.html)
- **Screen Daily**: The film draws power from its real-world gravitas and Domingo’s commanding performance while examining how prison harms individuals. It succeeds most in showing amateur performers accessing difficult emotions during rehearsals. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/sing-sing-review/5201005.article)
- **Sight and Sound**: The film is a heartening celebration of how human creativity can transform even seemingly hopeless lives. It praises the authentic contributions of former inmates in the cast and the inventive farcical play they stage. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/sing-sing-moving-celebration-human-creativity)
- **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw: The critic praises Colman Domingo's magnetic, generous lead performance as Divine G in this fact-based prison drama about the redemptive power of theatre. They single out the raw authenticity of the non-professional former inmates in the cast and the film's focus on vulnerability over genre clichés. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/sep/01/sing-sing-review-colman-domingo-is-magnetic-in-profoundly-moving-prison-drama-greg-kwedar)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, Lovia Gyarkye: Praises the film's sincere portrait of friendship and artistic expression in a prison setting, highlighting its sensitive approach to the characters' lives as an urgent document. Singles out Colman Domingo's range and the non-exploitative depiction of the rehabilitation program. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/sing-sing-review-colman-domingo-1235588078/)
- **The New York Times**, Lisa Kennedy (Critic’s Pick): The critic praises this moving drama about a prison theater program, highlighting Colman Domingo’s deep-tissue turn and Clarence Maclin’s breakout performance. They single out the deep respect and amity forged among the men in the Rehabilitation Through the Arts program. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/11/movies/sing-sing-review.html)
- **The Telegraph**: The critic calls it a funny, insightful and sensationally acted account of art's power to transform lives in a tough prison setting. They single out the authentic casting of former inmates and Colman Domingo's generous star turn. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/sing-sing-review-colman-domingo/)
- **The Times**, Kevin Maher: The critic finds the film consistently moving and inspirational in its depiction of a real-life prison theatre programme, with a huge and generous performance from Colman Domingo. They single out the authentic ensemble and the healing power of vulnerability. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/sing-sing-film-review-this-colman-domingo-prison-drama-will-have-you-in-tears-5lc58fv9p)
- **HeyUGuys**, Nathan McVay (5/5): This is a beautiful and incredibly important film that soars with phenomenal acting and balances humor and tragedy. It singles out the decision to cast real-life subjects and former troupe members alongside Colman Domingo for its grace and heartfelt impact. [Read](https://www.heyuguys.com/sing-sing-review/)
- **Deadline**, Valerie Complex (85/100, inferred): The film is a compelling story of redemption and humanity that serves as a love letter to the transformative power of the performing arts. It singles out the RTA theater program for praise as an oasis that allows incarcerated men to express their creativity and emotions despite the harsh realities of prison life. [Read](https://deadline.com/2023/09/sing-sing-review-greg-kwedars-ode-toronto-film-festival-1235541427/)
- **Film Stories**, Maria Lattila (85/100, inferred): The film is a powerful and affecting drama that celebrates theatre, life and performance while exploring incarceration from a unique perspective without sensationalism. It singles out the unintrusive direction and the way the story reminds viewers that performing gives the men freedom inside prison walls. [Read](https://filmstories.co.uk/reviews/sing-sing-review-a-powerful-ode-to-the-healing-quality-of-art/)
- **Collider**, Taylor Gates (8/10): The film showcases the power of art and community in a prison theater group with formerly incarcerated actors. Colman Domingo delivers an Oscar-worthy performance through subtle expressions, while the direction and cinematography create an intimate, visually stunning experience that highlights humanity and authenticity. [Read](https://collider.com/sing-sing-review/)
- **The Wrap**, Steve Pond (80/100, inferred): The indie drama has urgency and grit, showing lives lost and occasionally regained through the prisoners' theater program. It singles out Colman Domingo's authoritative performance for praise, along with the authenticity brought by the former prisoners playing versions of themselves. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/sing-sing-review-colman-domingo-prison-toronto-tiff/)
- **Paste**, Trace Sauveur (8.0): Greg Kwedar’s sensitive, joyous film incorporates real former prisoners into its cast to authentically depict the Rehabilitation Through the Arts program. It finds graceful emotional truths in the healing power of theater and community without relying on typical melodramatic tropes. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/a24/sing-sing-review)

## Details

- **Director:** Greg Kwedar
- **Director:** Greg Kwedar
- **Screenplay:** Greg Kwedar, Clint Bentley
- **Story:** Clarence Maclin, Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar, John "Divine G" Whitfield
- **Cinematography:** Pat Scola
- **Editor:** Parker Laramie
- **Music:** Bryce Dessner
- **Production design:** Ruta Kiskyte
- **Costume design:** Desira Pesta
- **Producer:** Monique Walton, Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar
- **Cast:** Colman Domingo as John 'Divine G' Whitfield; Clarence Maclin as Clarence 'Divine Eye' Maclin; Sean San Jose as Mike Mike; Paul Raci as Brent Buell; David "Dap" Giraudy as David 'Dap' Giraudy; Patrick "Preme" Griffin as Patrick 'Preme' Griffin; Mosi Eagle as Mosi Eagle; James "Big E" Williams as James 'Big E' Williams
- **Runtime:** 1h 47m
- **Certificate (MPA):** R
- **Release (the US):** 12 July 2024
- **Genres:** Drama
- **Budget:** $2 million
- **Box office:** $3 million
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3dXc6P3zH8

## Where to watch in the US

- HBO Max: streaming, uhd, leaving 2026-09-21
- Apple TV: add-on, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: add-on, uhd
- The Roku Channel: add-on, hd, leaving 2026-09-21
- Amazon Prime Video: rent $4.99, uhd
- Apple TV: rent $5.99, hd
- Apple TV: buy $19.99, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: buy $19.99, uhd

*Checked 2026-09-10.*

Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, DE, DK, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, IE, JP, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PL, SE, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *Caesar Must Die* (2012): Italian inmates rehearse Julius Caesar; the Tavianis film the rehearsals as the drama
- *A Prophet* (2009), Fi1m 86: A French prison as a school for one young man; harder, colder, unforgettable — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/a-prophet.md)
- *Starred Up* (2013), Fi1m 84: A British prison drama built around a therapy group and a father — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/starred-up.md)
- *The Work* (2017): Documentary of a Folsom group-therapy weekend; the faces do all the talking
- *Rustin* (2023), Fi1m 68: Domingo again, this time carrying a whole film on his own shoulders — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/rustin.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/sing-sing