Slideshow
STAY AWAKE
MUST END TUESDAY, JUNE 6
1:10 6:00
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY JAMIE SISLEY
An American indie debut drama of uncommon empathy that is very much of the moment: a fictionalized account of the filmmaker’s coming of age, as he struggles to get out from under the yoke of a prescription-drug-addicted mother in small-town Virginia. Life in the last, lame-duck months of high school, with a job at the Jolly Cow ice cream drive-in, would be cringe-inducing enough without a deeply depressed, self-destructive mother (Chrissy Metz, star of This Is Us). Wyatt Oleff (City on Fire) and Fin Argus (Queer as Folk) play teenage brothers stuck in a cycle of discovering their mom passed out, dragging her to the hospital, and encouraging rehab. Despair quickly turns to hope and then boomerangs back again. Featuring three superb performances that find surprising humor and humanity amid the tragedy of parental addiction.
2022 94 MIN. USA MARVISTA ENTERTAINMENT
Reviews
“Always ready with a lightness or glimmer of hope that balances the entire film beautifully…STAY AWAKE is certainly a balancing act of addiction, compassion, difficult choices, that still manages hilarious moments and periods of joy. One of the best directorial debuts of the year.”
– Ross Bonaime, Collider