THE WHALE

Name: THE WHALE
Start: 2022-10-13
End: 2022-10-13
Location: Sequoia 1

TRIBUTE TO BRENDAN FRASER

SPIRIT | US CINEMA

US 2022, 117 min, Director: Darren Aronofsky

Hinging on a career-defining performance from Brendan Fraser, The Whale is an emotionally resonant tour de force, by turns funny and devastating. Fraser plays Charlie, a 600-pound online writing teacher and fragile gay man stricken by grief. Confined to his dead-end Idaho apartment, Charlie ticks off his days binging on pizzas as visitors cycle in and out: an enabling caregiver (Hong Chau), a wayward missionary (Ty Simpkins), an angry-as-hell daughter (Sadie Sink), and an alcoholic ex-wife (Samantha Morton). Samuel D. Hunter brilliantly adapts his award-winning 2012 play, plumbing the complex nooks and crannies of religion, loss, sexuality, and literature. Ever sensitive to Fraser’s vulnerable and commanding performance, visionary director Darren Aronofsky (Variety Contenders, MVFF37) proves an ideal match for the material, giving it edge, humor, and unsentimental heft. —Randy Myers

IN PERSON: Brendan Fraser

Showtimes

Director

With his 1998 first feature, PI, Darren Aronofsky won the directing award at the Sundance Film Festival and Best First Screenplay at the Film Independent Spirit Awards. He received a Best Director Oscar® nomination for BLACK SWAN (2010). Among his other films are REQUIEM FOR A DREAM (2000), THE FOUNTAIN (2006), THE WRESTLER (2008), NOAH (2014), and MOTHER! (2017).