reviewed from my letterboxd.
...“we’re here to become human again.”
story, looks, music, acting — everything was breathtaking. to me the cinematography made watching this film feels like filing through memories: suffocating but there was orange sunlight shining through and people around are feeling and acting and singing their way into their hearts and pasts, then onto their futures. everyone here was portrayed with such kindness and beauty, and this warmth heavily contrasts the cold harsh background. and yes after watching i do want to learn more about the prison system.
sing sing is not a sad story at all, but it has a melancholy undercurrent (made even more intimate by a perfectly incorporated score) that brought me to connect with the characters as they connect with arts and life. there were so much emotions and so deep and overwhelming and they will hit you at the most unexpected time. many scenes i had tears in my eyes and it finally got me at the “old friends” part. from that moment on the tears just kept coming. words simply cannot measure the astonishment i felt towards these rca members, especially during the montage near the end and the credits. within 2 hours, these people’s love for art, for each other and for freedom completely broke me and hugged me back to a whole.
