Sleeping Giant (film)

Last updated

Sleeping Giant
Sleeping Giant (film).jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Andrew Cividino
Written byAndrew Cividino
Produced by Karen Harnisch
Marc Swenker
James Vandewater
Aaron Yeger
Andrew Cividino
StarringJackson Martin
Reece Moffett
Nick Serino
Cinematography James Klopko
Edited byJames Vandewater
Music byChris Thornborrow
Production
companies
Film Forge Productions
Hawkeye Pictures
Distributed byD Films
Release date
  • May 14, 2015 (2015-05-14)(Cannes)
Running time
89 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish

Sleeping Giant is a 2015 Canadian drama film written and directed by Andrew Cividino. The film follows three teenage boys coping with boredom in cottage country on the shores of Lake Superior.

Contents

The film premiered in the Critics' Week section at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. [1] It is an expansion of a short film that Cividino made in 2013, [2] which was nominated for Best Live Action Short Drama at the 3rd Canadian Screen Awards. The film is named after the Sleeping Giant cliffs near Thunder Bay.

Plot

Teenage Adam Hudson is spending his summer vacation with his upper middle-class parents in Thunder Bay on rugged Lake Superior. His dull routine is given a jumpstart when he befriends Riley and Nate, working-class cousins staying with their grandmother, who pass their ample free time with debauchery and reckless cliff jumping. Sporadically joined by Adam's friend Taylor, the three boys become inseparable, but their friendship is uneasy and rife with hormonal tension, bullying and jealousy.

Riley witnesses Adam's father engaging an extramarital affair with a local shopkeeper and tells Adam, who begins to act out in his father's company and engage in increasingly dangerous mischief with his friends. The revelation of his father's infidelity triggers a series of irreversible events that test the bonds of friendship and change the boys forever.

Cast

Influences

Cividino has listed numerous films and filmmakers as influences for Sleeping Giant, including Peter Weir's Picnic At Hanging Rock , Mike Nichols' The Graduate , and Andrea Arnold's Fish Tank . [3]

Release

Critical reception

On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 87% based on 23 reviews, and an average rating of 7.5/10. [4] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 71 out of 100, based on 5 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [5]

Variety's Guy Lodge called the film an "accomplished debut," adding, "Cividino depicts the tricky male power games between the boys with tact and compassionate impartiality." [6] Jessica Kiang for The Playlist wrote "Perhaps most impressive is how, despite the nostalgia inherent in this kind of endeavor, Sleeping Giant never sentimentalizes its story, and never compromises on the essentially bleak idea that you can be transformed from a carefree child shading your eyes from the glare of a huge, wide future to a scarred and haunted young adult in a single moment." [7]

Accolades

Sleeping Giant won Best Canadian First Feature Film at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. [8] It also took home the Best Canadian Film award at the Vancouver International Film Festival. [9] In December 2015, the Toronto International Film Festival named the film to its annual year-end Canada's Top Ten list. [10]

AwardDate of ceremonyCategoryRecipient(s) and nominee(s)ResultRef(s)
Toronto Film Critics Association December 14, 2015 Rogers Best Canadian Film Award Andrew Cividino Nominated [11]
Canadian Screen Awards March 13, 2016 Best Motion Picture Karen Harnisch, Andrew Cividino, Marc Swenker, James Vandewater, Aaron YegerNominated [12] [13]
Best Director Andrew CividinoNominated
Best Supporting Actor Nick Serino Won
Best Editing James VandewaterNominated

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Denis Villeneuve</span> French Canadian film director and screenwriter (born 1967)

Denis Villeneuve is a French-Canadian filmmaker. He is a four-time recipient of the Canadian Screen Award for Best Direction, winning for Maelström in 2001, Polytechnique in 2009, Incendies in 2010 and Enemy in 2013. The first three of these films also won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Motion Picture, while the latter was awarded the prize for best Canadian film of the year by the Toronto Film Critics Association.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Riley Keough</span> American actress (born 1989)

Danielle Riley Keough is an American actress. She made her feature film debut in a supporting part in the musical biopic The Runaways (2010), portraying Marie Currie. Keough subsequently starred in the independent thriller The Good Doctor (2011), before being cast in a minor role in Steven Soderbergh's comedy film Magic Mike (2012). She had her first big-budget release in the action feature Mad Max: Fury Road (2015).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Linklater</span> American film director, producer and screenwriter (born 1960)

Richard Stuart Linklater is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is known for making films that deal thematically with suburban culture and the effects of the passage of time. His films include the comedies Slacker (1990) and Dazed and Confused (1993); the Before trilogy of romance films: Before Sunrise (1995), Before Sunset (2004), and Before Midnight (2013); the music-themed comedy School of Rock (2003); the adult animated films Waking Life (2001), A Scanner Darkly (2006), and Apollo 10 1⁄2: A Space Age Childhood (2022); the coming-of-age drama Boyhood (2014); and the comedy film Everybody Wants Some!! (2016).

<i>Felicias Journey</i> (film) 1999 film by Atom Egoyan

Felicia's Journey is a 1999 psychological thriller film written and directed by Atom Egoyan and starring Elaine Cassidy and Bob Hoskins. It is based on the prize-winning 1994 novel of the same name by William Trevor. It was entered into the 1999 Cannes Film Festival and won four Genie Awards, including Best Adapted Screenplay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adam Driver</span> American actor (born 1983)

Adam Douglas Driver is an American actor. Recognized for his collaborations with auteur filmmakers, he is the recipient of various accolades, including nominations for two Academy Awards, four Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Tony Award.

<i>Winter Sleep</i> (film) 2014 Turkish film by Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Winter Sleep is a 2014 Turkish drama film directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, adapted from the novella "The Wife" by Anton Chekhov and one subplot of The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The story is set in Anatolia and examines the significant divide between the rich and the poor as well as the powerful and the powerless in Turkey. It stars Haluk Bilginer, Demet Akbag and Melisa Sözen.

<i>Youre Sleeping Nicole</i> 2014 film

You're Sleeping Nicole is a 2014 Canadian drama film directed by Stéphane Lafleur. It was selected to be screened as part of the Directors' Fortnight section of the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. The film had a limited release on 22 August 2014, followed by a general Quebec theatrical release on 29 August 2014. It was screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.

<i>Embrace of the Serpent</i> 2015 film

Embrace of the Serpent is a 2015 internationally co-produced adventure drama film directed by Ciro Guerra, and written by Guerra and Jacques Toulemonde Vidal. Shot almost entirely in black and white, the film follows two journeys made thirty years apart by the indigenous shaman Karamakate in the Colombian Amazonian jungle, one with Theo, a German ethnographer, and the other with Evan, an American botanist, both of whom are searching for the rare plant yakruna. It was inspired by the travel diaries of Theodor Koch-Grünberg and Richard Evans Schultes, and dedicated to lost Amazonian cultures.

<i>Mustang</i> (film) 2015 film

Mustang is a 2015 Turkish-language drama film co-written and directed by Deniz Gamze Ergüven in her feature debut. Set at an unspecified time in the 2010s in a remote Turkish village, Mustang depicts the lives of five young orphaned sisters and the challenges they face growing up with extended family as girls in a conservative society. Mustang is an international co-production of France, Germany and Turkey.

Andrew Cividino is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. He is best known for his feature film directorial debut Sleeping Giant, which premiered at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, and for his frequent work as a director on the Emmy winning comedy Schitt's Creek, for which he won a Primetime Emmy at the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Josh Mond</span> American film director

Josh Mond is an American film director, screenwriter and producer. He is known for producing the feature films Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011) and Simon Killer (2012), and for writing and directing James White (2015).

Nicholas Jonathan Roger Serino, known professionally as Nick Serino, is a Canadian actor.

The nominations for the 16th Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards, honoring the best in filmmaking in 2015, were announced on December 14, 2015. Several winners were announced on December 21, 2015, while the rest were revealed on January 6, 2016.

<i>Faces Places</i> (film) 2017 film

Faces Places is a 2017 French documentary film directed by Agnès Varda and JR. It was screened out of competition at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival where it won the L'Œil d'or award. The film follows Varda and JR traveling around rural France, creating portraits of the people they come across. It was released on 28 June 2017 in France and 6 October 2017 in the United States. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 90th Academy Awards. The film was Varda's second-to-last work, preceding Varda by Agnès in 2019.

<i>BlacKkKlansman</i> 2018 American film by Spike Lee

BlacKkKlansman is a 2018 American biographical crime comedy drama film directed by Spike Lee and written by Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott and Lee, loosely based on the 2014 memoir Black Klansman by Ron Stallworth. The film stars John David Washington as Stallworth, along with Adam Driver, Laura Harrier, and Topher Grace. In addition, it also marked Harry Belafonte's last feature film before his death in April 2023. Set in the 1970s in Colorado Springs, Colorado, the plot follows the first African-American detective in the city's police department as he sets out to infiltrate and expose the local Ku Klux Klan chapter.

<i>The Whistlers</i> (film) 2019 film

The Whistlers is a 2019 Romanian crime thriller film directed by Corneliu Porumboiu and starring Vlad Ivanov. It premiered in competition at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. It was selected as the Romanian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards, but it was not nominated.

<i>The Cordillera of Dreams</i> 2019 documentary film

The Cordillera of Dreams is a 2019 Chilean-French documentary film directed by Patricio Guzmán. It is considered the third installment in a trilogy of films by Guzmán about his native country, Chile, alongside Nostalgia for the Light (2010) and The Pearl Button (2015).

<i>R.M.N.</i> 2022 drama film written and directed by Cristian Mungiu

R.M.N. is a 2022 drama film written and directed by Cristian Mungiu. Set in a multiethnic village in Transylvania, Romania, during the 2019–20 holiday season, the film follows a man who returns from Germany and his ex-lover who works in the village. Mungiu named the film after a Romanian acronym for nuclear magnetic resonance, as the film is "an investigation of the brain, a brain scan trying to detect things below the surface". The film is based on the 2020 Ditrău xenophobic incident.

<i>War Pony</i> 2022 film by Riley Keough and Gina Gammell

War Pony is a 2022 American drama film directed and produced by Riley Keough and Gina Gammell—in both of their respective feature directorial debuts—from a screenplay by Keough, Gammell, Franklin Sioux Bob and Bill Reddy. It stars Jojo Bapteise Whiting and Ladainian Crazy Thunder.

Hlynur Pálmason is an Icelandic film director, screenwriter, and visual artist.

References

  1. ↑ Felperin, Leslie (May 14, 2015). "'Sleeping Giant': Cannes Review". The Hollywood Reporter . Archived from the original on August 24, 2019. Retrieved August 24, 2019.
  2. ↑ Knight, Chris (May 21, 2015). "Cannes 2015: Andrew Cividino debuts with Thunder Bay-shot Sleeping Giant". National Post . Retrieved August 24, 2019.
  3. ↑ Knegt, Peter (April 7, 2016). "5 films that inspired the breakout director of Sleeping Giant". CBC . Archived from the original on August 29, 2018. Retrieved August 28, 2019.
  4. ↑ "Sleeping Giant (2015)". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media. Archived from the original on May 10, 2018. Retrieved August 25, 2019.
  5. ↑ "Sleeping Giant Reviews". Metacritic . CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on April 24, 2018. Retrieved August 25, 2019.
  6. ↑ Lodge, Guy (May 15, 2015). "Cannes Film Review: 'Sleeping Giant'". Variety . Archived from the original on April 21, 2019. Retrieved August 25, 2019.
  7. ↑ Kiang, Jessica (May 16, 2015). "Cannes Review: Andrew Cividino's Chilling Coming Of Age Debut 'Sleeping Giant'". The Playlist. Archived from the original on August 25, 2019. Retrieved August 25, 2019.
  8. ↑ Tapley, Kristopher (September 20, 2015). "'Room' Wins Toronto Film Festival's People's Choice Award". Variety . Archived from the original on January 28, 2019. Retrieved August 25, 2019.
  9. ↑ Pinto, Jordan (October 5, 2015). "Sleeping Giant, Fractured Land win VIFF prizes". Playback . Archived from the original on August 25, 2019. Retrieved August 25, 2019.
  10. ↑ Hertz, Barry (December 8, 2015). "TIFF reveals Canada's Top Ten Film Festival line-up". The Globe and Mail . Archived from the original on December 22, 2015. Retrieved August 25, 2019.
  11. ↑ "Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson share $100K award for best Canadian films". CBC News . January 5, 2016. Archived from the original on October 17, 2017. Retrieved January 10, 2020.
  12. ↑ "2016 Canadian Screen Awards: All the nominees". Hello! . January 19, 2016. Archived from the original on August 25, 2019. Retrieved August 25, 2019.
  13. ↑ "Nick Serino wins Best Supporting Actor at Canadian Screen Awards". CBC News . March 14, 2016. Archived from the original on August 29, 2017. Retrieved August 25, 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.