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Starkly emotional and beautifully directed, The Selfish Giant uses a lovely script and some powerful performances to present some of the best that modern British cinema has to offer.
All Critics (83) | Top Critics (27) | Fresh (81) | Rotten (2)
Though they share the same title, director Clio Barnard's bewitching follow-up to The Arbor bears little cosmetic similarity to the fluorescent idyll of Oscar Wilde's 19th century children's fable. Aug 18, 2015
Though they share the same title, director Clio Barnard's bewitching follow-up to The Arbor bears little cosmetic similarity to the fluorescent idyll of Oscar Wilde's 19th century children's fable.
Charlie Lyne
Barnard's work with these two child actors is extraordinary, and she has written a lean script. Aug 4, 2014 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…
Barnard's work with these two child actors is extraordinary, and she has written a lean script.
Paul Byrnes
"The Selfish Giant" is a story of dependence, damage and desperation, told with grit and grimy frankness. It's also a portrait of friendship born of need and emptiness, on the road to nowhere. Feb 19, 2014 | Rating: B | Full Review…
"The Selfish Giant" is a story of dependence, damage and desperation, told with grit and grimy frankness. It's also a portrait of friendship born of need and emptiness, on the road to nowhere.
Tom Long
Clio Barnard's The Selfish Giant isn't the Oscar Wilde children's story, but more an inspired take on it in the kitchen-sink style of a Ken Loach drama. Jan 23, 2014 | Rating: 3.5/4 | Full Review…
Clio Barnard's The Selfish Giant isn't the Oscar Wilde children's story, but more an inspired take on it in the kitchen-sink style of a Ken Loach drama.
Peter Howell
Ultimately, it's a sad, tough sit - but worth seeing for its gritty honesty and strong cast. Jan 16, 2014 | Rating: 3/4
Ultimately, it's a sad, tough sit - but worth seeing for its gritty honesty and strong cast.
Moira MacDonald
Much of the movie is hard to bear, yet it never drags, thanks to the momentum that Barnard finds in the fable, and, above all, to the energy that she unleashes in her young leads. Jan 13, 2014 | Full Review…
Much of the movie is hard to bear, yet it never drags, thanks to the momentum that Barnard finds in the fable, and, above all, to the energy that she unleashes in her young leads.
Anthony Lane
The Selfish Giant rejects the stark glumness of most recent neo-kitchen sink offerings in favour of childish adventure as Arbor and Swifty attempt to flesh out their respective futures. Mar 5, 2019 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…
The Selfish Giant rejects the stark glumness of most recent neo-kitchen sink offerings in favour of childish adventure as Arbor and Swifty attempt to flesh out their respective futures.
Daniel Green
A social-realist contemporary re-working of Oscar Wilde's children's tale of the same name, this film is unapologetically miserable, gritty, British cinema. And it's brilliant. Jan 30, 2019 | Full Review…
A social-realist contemporary re-working of Oscar Wilde's children's tale of the same name, this film is unapologetically miserable, gritty, British cinema. And it's brilliant.
Tara Judah
The Selfish Giant is a powerhouse of a film, a huge success as Clio Barnard's first narrative. Nov 7, 2018 | Full Review…
The Selfish Giant is a powerhouse of a film, a huge success as Clio Barnard's first narrative.
Morgan Rojas
It never feels particularly fresh, but it does feel real and true, is superbly performed, and it does pack quite an emotional punch. I had to gather myself afterwards, and I'm still gathering myself, and may be gathering myself for some time to come. Sep 5, 2018 | Full Review…
It never feels particularly fresh, but it does feel real and true, is superbly performed, and it does pack quite an emotional punch. I had to gather myself afterwards, and I'm still gathering myself, and may be gathering myself for some time to come.
Deborah Ross
"The Selfish Giant" is a beautiful, profound, perfectly acted film... but I can't say you should watch it, because it is so unbearably sad that you'll be completely sorry you started it. Aug 22, 2018 | Full Review…
"The Selfish Giant" is a beautiful, profound, perfectly acted film... but I can't say you should watch it, because it is so unbearably sad that you'll be completely sorry you started it.
Asia Frey
If you know any teenage boys with anger issues or a tendency to get into trouble, this movie definitely speaks their language. Aug 10, 2018 | Full Review…
If you know any teenage boys with anger issues or a tendency to get into trouble, this movie definitely speaks their language.
Sarah Manvel
Barnard displays an incredibly firm hand in the direction of this powerful piece of British social realism that brings to mind the works of Ken Loach and is above all a rich character study with a great onscreen chemistry between the excellent Conner Chapman and Shaun Thomas.
Super Reviewer
'The Selfish Giant'. The sucker punch of that first beautiful frame to the relentless bleakness that follows is cruel. Miserable, masterful. Outstanding, gritty performances from first-timers, and a director whose future I will follow eagerly, given the worlds she seems to want to delve into.
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In an attempt to calm down his best friend Arbor(Conner Chapman), Swifty(Shaun Thomas) takes him for a midnight ride on a horse. Along the way, they steal some copper cable which utility workers had already appropriated for their own profit and sell it to Kitten(Sean Gilder), a scrap dealer. That money comes in handy for the truancy fine Arbor's mother(Rebecca Manley) has to pay. However, she does not become fully suspicious until the boys try to wash their own clothes. That is not the end of their troubles as Arbor is expelled from school for defending Swifty from a group of bullies who in turn is suspended for ten days. Written and directed by Clio Barnard, "The Selfish Giant" is an exacting, beautifully filmed and timeless tale of an upside down world where children attempt to take care of the adults, aging too quickly in the bargain. A sign of this is industrial decay resulting in the desperation that leads to people like those in Detroit stripping the infrastructure of whatever is not nailed down. Even with all of that going on, Swifty finds his opportunity from the most unlikeliest of sources. The tragedy of Arbor who is both hero and villain is that he never stops long enough to consider all the ramifications of his actions.
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