The Grizzlies

2018
R
1h 42m

IMDb RATING

7.5/10

2.8K

YOUR RATING

Play trailer2:20

2 Videos

46 Photos

Biography Drama Sport

In a small Arctic town struggling with the highest suicide rate in North America, a group of Inuit students' lives are transformed when they are introduced to the sport of lacrosse.In a small Arctic town struggling with the highest suicide rate in North America, a group of Inuit students' lives are transformed when they are introduced to the sport of lacrosse.In a small Arctic town struggling with the highest suicide rate in North America, a group of Inuit students' lives are transformed when they are introduced to the sport of lacrosse.

Director
- Miranda de Pencier
Writers
- Moira Walley-Beckett
- Graham Yost
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.5/10

2.8K

YOUR RATING

Director
- Miranda de Pencier
Writers
- Moira Walley-Beckett
- Graham Yost
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 8 wins & 9 nominations

Videos2

Photos46

More like this

7.3

8.2

7.2

7.2

7.2

6.7

6.7

Montford: The Chickasaw Rancher

5.9

7.1

6.7

6.3

Storyline

Edit

Did you know

Edit

Trivia
The filmmakers included Inuit people in every aspect of the making of The Grizzlies. That way, the film would not only represent the Inuit experience, but it could provide a training ground for Inuit and Indigenous filmmakers who could go on to make their own films. A paid mentorship program invited Inuit actors, crew, musicians and other creative collaborators to participate, and in the end, more than 91 percent of the cast and more than 33 percent of the crew were Inuit or Indigenous.

Goofs
When the team arrives to Toronto, A poster for Teenage mutant ninja turtles: Out of the shadows can be seen . The film takes place in 2004, an entire 12 years before the film came out.

Quotes
Russ Sheppard: What lies behind us is tiny compared to what lies within us.

Connections
Featured in CTV News at Six Toronto: Episode dated 15 September 2018 (2018)

User reviews43

Review

Featured review

7/10

A better touch to the formulaic sports movie

In 2005, Russ Sheppard (Ben Schnetzer) is a recent Canadian teaching graduate who flies to a small Inuit town in Nunavut for his first job. Trying to help the teens who have a high rate of suicide and despair, he teaches the kids lacrosse and organizes a local league.

There are moments when "The Grizzlies" feels like a formulaic sports movie though it thankfully has some unpredictable moments which fall outside that usual narrative. Also, Russ starts out as a naïve do-gooder / rescuer who is initially hard to take. But the movie wins for various reasons. The main one: it is based on a true story.

The film exposes the long-term difficulties of the community including not only the suicide rates mentioned but addiction, domestic violence, school truancy, and the legacy of the egregious residential school system. These other stories make the film gripping and moving with many emotions coming to the surface. It also provides hope in a sincere way that does not gloss over the long-term history of great struggle. As "The Grizzlies"joins the list of recent stories of First Nations histories, it is certainly more than a typical sports movie. Let's hope for more of these stories to be told. - dbamateurcritic