BEFORE: OK, I know I just posted yesterday but I'm going to be very busy this week, most likely I can only watch TWO movies this week, because for the first time in a very long time, I'm going to be working every day from Monday through Friday. OK, every NIGHT from Monday through Friday, that's not exactly the same thing, but you know, it's going to be a full week. So really after tonight's film I'll be on break until Saturday, I think. Still if I hustle next weekend I can synch up with another actor's birthday on 11/17, so that's the plan. But before that I'm going to get caught up working a movie premiere on Monday, a basketball game on Tuesday and then three days on a documentary film festival. I like working DocFest because I'll walk away from the event with a lot of great ideas for my own Doc Block next year, which I should start working on organizing, right after I get through the Christmas films and the next romance chain in February.
Sharon Washington carries over from "18 1/2".
THE PLOT: Divine G, a man imprisoned in Sing Sing for a crime he didn't commit, finds purpose by acting in a theatre group alongside other incarcerated men in this story of resilience, humanity and the transformative power of art.
AFTER: This is a fascinating film, but there's something weird about it. I need to know the back story of this, like is it based on a book or a real-life program that teaches prison inmates acting skills. There's something funky about the storyline, but I'll get into that in just a bit. But first I want to know how many of the actors were really prisoners, or if all the actors were actors but they spent time in a prison for research. Just searching through the cast list creates more questions, like why are some of the character names the same as some of the other actor names, are some people playing themselves or did they just borrow the names of some other cast members to create character names? Is some of the acting kind of sub-par because those actors had no experience acting, or were they just acting like they had no experience acting? Let me stop here before I go too far and read about the filmmaking process on Wikipedia... Yes, I did work at a screening of this film last year, but I was not able to watch the film at that time.
OK, so RTA - Rehabilitation Through the Arts is a real program, at the real Sing Sing prison, which I know is upstate from me in Ossining, NY. And yes, there's a mix here of real movie actors, Colman Domingo and Paul Raci are two of them, but many of the others are former inmates of the prison who were also alumni of the RTA program. So this isn't based on a book or a play, but based on real experiences of real maximum security inmates. Participating in a play, working as part of a group to create something, sure, I can see how that's a form of therapy to remind the inmates that there is something to strive for, being in prison does NOT have to mean being solitary or cut off, being part of a group with common goals can help remind them that there's an outside world, that they can hopefully be part of again someday.
There is a real "Divine G" too, he makes a cameo appearance in the film, although Mr. Domingo plays the character of Divine G, as someone with an affinity for Shakespeare and a special affection for Hamlet. Here Divine G works to recruit new actors from the prison population, which puts him in touch with Divine Eye, who auditions for the role of Hamlet, which Divine G thought would surely have been the best role for himself. Complications arise when the new inmates who joined the program don't want to be stuck in a Shakespeare play, they'd rather do a comedy, or a pirate play or a gladiator story, so they collectively agree to do a time-travel story that will incorporate all of these different elements and characters. So, yeah, the play-within-the-play is a bit of a mess, but what's more important is that the inmates are working together to make sure it's at least funny, even if it doesn't make any sense.
Problems for Divine G arise when he has his parole hearing and the board ends up questioning whether he is sincere about wanting to be reformed, or if he's just acting like someone who does. Well, haters gonna hate, I guess. Meanwhile Divine Eye slowly becomes a better actor with the help of his fellow inmates, and soon after the play is performed, he is released from prison. It takes Divine G another seven years to get paroled, but Divine Eye is waiting for him outside when he is released. So ultimately this is a redemption story for all involved, except maybe Mike Mike.
By no means is this a documentary, but it is sort of based on actual events, and there's a sense of realism created by using some inmates to play themselves, and other former inmates play other characters or other versions of themselves, so it's a fictional story that kind of has one foot in the real world. The film played at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival and got acquired by A24 shortly after that - then after a limited release I know there was a big push for it at Oscar time last year. The film ended up with three Oscar nominations, but didn't win any. C'est la vie.
Directed by Greg Kwedar (producer of "Running with Beto")
Also starring Colman Domingo (last seen in "The Electric State"), Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin, Sean San Jose (last seen in "Mobsters"), Paul Raci (last seen in "The Mother"), David “Dap” Giraudy, Patrick “Preme” Griffin (last seen in "Lone Survivor"), Mosi Eagle, James “Big E” Williams, Sean “Dino” Johnson, Brent Buell, Michael Capra, Joanna Chan, Cecily Lyn Benjamin, Johnny Simmons (last seen in "Jennifer's Body"), Dario Pena, Miguel Valentin, Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez, Pedro Cotto, Camillo “Carmine” Lovacco, Cornell “Nate” Alston, John “Divine G” Whitfield
RATING: 5 out of 10 audition tapes
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