Academy Award Winner!

The director of Requiem for a Dream and Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky has never been one to play safe. Here, in his first film in five years, he bucks expectations again with a chamber piece about an English teacher, Charlie (Brendan Fraser), who appears to be on the verge of eating himself to death. Before that happens, he reaches out to the teenage daughter he hasn’t seen in ten years. Adapted from Samuel D. Hunter’s play, The Whale confronts prejudice in all shapes and sizes. It’s a gripping, compassionate drama which keeps us hooked without leaving the confines of Charlie’s apartment. Along with what is probably Fraser’s career-best performance, there’s sterling work here from Hong Chau (Downsizing) as his friend and de facto nurse, Samantha Morton as his ex-wife, and Sadie Sink (Stranger Things) as his rebellious daughter, Ellie.—Vancouver International Film Festival

“With The Whale, Aronofsky and Fraser have taken substantive risks, in the name of an insistent empathy. I think, and my tear ducts agree, that those risks paid off.”—RogerEbert.com

“Fraser, so good, takes what could be a joke, a flat tragedy, or even a lecture about weight and imbues it with gorgeous humanity.”—New York Post