🏆 Sing Sing (2024) – A Tough Sit That Had Us Walking Out

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ (1/5 Stars)

Released 07-12-2024

Watched 07-08-2025

Reviewed 02-26-2025

Watched in the theater Using Cinemark Movie Club

"We here to become human again, to put on nice clothes and dance around and enjoy the things that is not in our reality."

There are times when a film is critically celebrated but just doesn’t resonate with everyone. Sing Sing (2024), a prison drama featuring a mix of actors and real-life formerly incarcerated individuals, has been widely praised, even earning three Academy Award nominations. However, my wife and I had a vastly different experience. We saw it early as part of a Secret Movie Series screening and walked out after about 30 minutes something we never do.

The film, starring Colman Domingo, tells the story of a prison theater program aimed at rehabilitation and self-expression. While that premise sounds intriguing, the execution felt slow and unfocused. From the start, the pacing was painfully sluggish, and the narrative lacked the kind of engagement that would make us invest in the characters’ journeys. We kept waiting for something compelling to pull us in, but instead, we found ourselves disconnected and uninterested.

Perhaps the film’s artistic choices, such as its documentary-like approach and naturalistic performances, work for some audiences. The Academy seems to think so. But if a movie fails to hold attention after half an hour, it’s hard to justify sticking around for the rest. Given its critical acclaim, it may find an audience that appreciates its deeper themes and performances, but for us, it simply didn’t work.