The delicate coming-of-age process is curbed by one family’s struggle with a so-called “crisis” in Stay Awake, writer-director Jamie Sisley’s feature debut. Of course, the crisis at hand is the opioid epidemic, and the afflicted party is a tight-knit family living in a small Virginia town. Michelle (Chrissy Metz, best known for her role on NBC’s This Is Us) is a single mother who undeniably loves her two sons Ethan (Wyatt Oleff) and Derek (Fin Argus). But unfaltering devotion on its own cannot keep Michelle sober, particularly when her doctor keeps refilling her highly-addictive prescription. Most nights, the brothers find themselves desperately […]
by Natalia Keogan on May 18, 2023Winner of the Cinema Vision 14Plus Award and Generation Special Mention for Best Film at last year’s Berlinale, Jamie Sisley’s debut feature Stay Awake finally gets a trailer and a limited US theatrical release date. The addiction drama will open at Film Forum in New York City on May 19 and the Laemmle Royal in Los Angeles on May 25. An official synopsis reads: 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 […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Apr 27, 2023