Propelled by the powerfully credible performances of its non-professional teenage leads, and punctuated with contemplative images of post-industrial landscapes, The Selfish Giant ultimately achieves in its poignant coda a note of unexpected grace.
The leads (Conner Chapman and Shaun Thomas) are terrific, so it’s a shame that the adults seem clichéd.
A terrific human drama about two boys about to be consigned to the scrapheap, with standout performances from its young leads.
Bleak but brilliant.
In the end, though, the generosity of spirit the film shows for the two boys at its heart makes The Selfish Giant a moving, absorbing and quietly radical film.
With The Selfish Giant, Clio Barnard has proven herself a powerful and exciting voice in British cinema. To watch it is to be transformed, and to know that it’s a story that will stay with you.
Carried aloft by the remarkable performances of her two young leads, Clio Barnard’s poignant, unflinching slice of hard-knock-life grips tight and lingers long. Britain’s definitely got talent.
The Arbor finds a successor...a challenger...and an equal.
At heart it’s a very human story about love and friendship, elevated by two outstanding performances from young leads Chapman and Thomas.
Barnard's updating of Wilde is certainly one of the strongest films in what is shaping up as a vintage year for British cinema.
The Selfish Giant is a far grimmer, less hopeful – and, concomitantly, less heartbreaking film. The untrained young actors (Conner Chapman, Shaun Thomas) lend it lots of youthful vigour and energy.
It is a richly allusive and moving work. And Barnard's own stature isn't in doubt.
It all adds up to an affectingly truthful movie that touches the heart as it holds a fabulist mirror up to reality, enriching the traditions of homegrown drama, and confirming Barnard as a major voice of modern British cinema.
Autumn film preview 2013: The Selfish Giant
Oscar Wilde's Selfish Giant a tale for our times
Clio Barnard
Scrapheap challenge: on the set of The Selfish Giant
Edinburgh Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Friday October 25, 2013, until Thursday November 7, 2013. More info: www.filmhousecinema.com
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