Perhaps it should have been a musical -- which Buell’s play originally was. But even without the tunes, you’ll likely be moved at some point, especially if you’ve ever experienced the pleasures and challenges of putting on a show.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 16, 2025

Having pared away nearly every detail that doesn’t advance the plot, Kwedar and Bentley rely heavily on their lead actors to fill the ensuing breach. In this, at least, their instincts are sure.

| Jan 6, 2025

Colman Domingo is at the peak of his considerable powers in Greg Kwedar’s inspirational, fact-based prison drama Sing Sing.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 3, 2024

Brimming with compassion and punctuated by humour, this is a moving look at prison and prisoners. It’s both infuriating and inspirational to see so much beauty in such a harsh environment.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 30, 2024

In a story about art’s transformative potential, it’s the wondrous slow bloom of their bond that most distils Sing Sing’s poignant power.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 29, 2024

Mixing real actors and amateurs can be messy, but thanks to a script by Kwedar and Clint Bentley that plays to everyone’s strengths, it works seamlessly here.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Aug 29, 2024

An affectionate, tender film about brotherhood and forgiveness.

| Aug 28, 2024

Greg Kwedar's direction is both sensitive and unflinching. He balances the film's darker moments with flashes of humour and hope, creating a narrative that is as uplifting as it is heartbreaking. 

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 28, 2024

Domingo thankfully smoothes over any narrative cracks with a huge and generous performance, and one that is clearly stamped with “Oscar Season”.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 27, 2024

[Domingo and Raci's] interplay flows naturally, but is underpinned by a robust, punchy wit – imagine The Shawshank Redemption directed by Mike Leigh.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 19, 2024

Everything here is so uplifting that it seems churlish to find fault. But however rousing and admirably intended, there is something surreal and out of place in the characterisation of its leading role.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 19, 2024

Sometimes it's all a little too much for the heart, but it's a sterling reminder of the redemptive function of art and the salvation of performance.

| Original Score: A- | Aug 16, 2024

It is real and raw.

| Aug 14, 2024

It’s in this space that masculinity is interrogated, imagination is nourished, and these men get to be defined not by their past trauma but by their resilience and renewed capacity for joy.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 8, 2024

[Kwedar] lets us see the small, crushing details of prison life: the conversations held on two sides of a wall; the endless lines; the clutter of a tiny cell, where a man’s ancient electric typewriter pounds into the quiet, its hammers the sound of hope.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 6, 2024

Colman Domingo does award-worthy work as an unjustly imprisoned man dedicated to helping others at Sing Sing express themselves.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Aug 3, 2024

Domingo can play funny, angry, powerful, loose, commanding and damaged all at once. But here, he gets only one scene to prove it and spends the rest of the run time being as mild and pleasant as the film itself.

| Aug 2, 2024

The tension between being your true self and putting on a performance is crucial to Kwedar’s approach.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 2, 2024

“Sing Sing” manages to tells its own story efficiently but it knows the value of the rhythmic change-up. In the key role Domingo’s restraint here never for a second feels like passivity.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 2, 2024

Domingo is extraordinary here, conveying his character’s struggles with the subtlest details of expression and posture. He is matched along the way by the RTA alumni.

| Original Score: A- | Aug 2, 2024