The Selfish Giant

2013

1h 31m

Drama

List

98%

86 Reviews

Tomatometer

81%

5,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

A hyperactive boy (Conner Chapman) and his best friend, a slow-witted youth with an affinity for horses, start collecting scrap metal for a shady dealer.

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Critics Consensus

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.

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Shock Therapy R

Like watching two people that seem destined to fight. Then they fight. No one wins. Both lose. We watched the scrappy fight. Does it now feel rewarding to have watched them both blow off steam? Apparently so for most. But the real selfish giant is my time on this one, and I didn't learn anything.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

12/06/22

Full Review

mike v

The Selfish Giant is a 2013 British drama film directed by Clio Barnard 🎭 Oof, this isn't good 🙁 Probably give it a miss 👎🏼

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

r 9

Very much enjoyed this, from a film point of view of course given the dark and saddening tone of the story. 'The Selfish Giant' is a gritty drama involving two kids who get mixed up in the wrong world. At the beginning I was worried it was going to turn into a cliché-filled, overly stereotypical tale of less well-off families. It does in small doses, but feels legitimate for the majority. Cast-wise it isn't amazing, though it's impossible not to give praise to youngsters Conner Chapman (Arbor) and Shaun Thomas (Swiftly) as they give very respectable performances, especially when taking into account the tricky nature of role and premise. Sean Gilder is good as Kitten, while some of the others are solid enough. It's both impactful and heartbreaking, especially across the third act. Recommended viewing.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

It's basically a story about children morons bourne from parent morons who are so thick they can't be educated so have to earn a living from thievery. The entire community are also kretins, making their livings from thieving. I had no empathy for these lowlifes whatsoever but it wasn't a bad film.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/24/23

Full Review

anthony p

Film about scrap metal dealing and the potential cash returns that it provides, sometimes illegally. The central characters are school friends Arbor and Swifty. Arbor suffers from a form of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and ends up permanently excluded from school and into a life of poverty and scrounging scrap metal. This activity does provide some short term much needed money but ends up with critical circumstances as Swifty is electrocuted. It is one of those films that evokes memories of so many others, be it works from Ken Loach like Kes and The Navigators to Hollywood films such as Ben-Hur and Warhorse! Director Clio Barnard has furthered her links to Rita, Sue and Bob Too! with another socially surreal film set in the northern England city of Bradford. The trouble with these films is they usually depict England (especially the north of the country) as a bleak, dark area. It isn't (not all the time). Casting is pretty minimal with a young cast apart from the parents of Arbor and Swifty and the older scrap metal dealer Kitten. Some of these actors I recognised from other films of the genre and TV work. Barnard just might carry on the mantle of legendary but ageing director Ken Loach. 3.5/5

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

nefasto r

A pearl. A very sad pearl, but a pearl nevertheless.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

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Clio Barnard

Director

Conner Chapman

Arbor

Shaun Thomas

Swifty

Sean Gilder

Kitten

Steve Evets

"Price Drop" Swift

Lorraine Ashbourne

Mary

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Deborah Ross

The Spectator

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

Larushka Ivan-Zadeh

metro.co.uk

Strong, beautiful and honest film-making.

Rated: 5/5

Sep 6, 2017

Full Review

Charlie Lyne

Little White Lies

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

Full Review

Tom Cassidy

Common Sense Media

Director Clio Barnard has delivered a movie that's excellently made but is in the end maybe a bit too suffocating to enjoy.

Rated: 3/5

Jan 25, 2022

Full Review

Joanne Laurier

World Socialist Web Site

With great empathy for her characters, Barnard locates her movie in a bleak, postindustrial landscape.

Feb 27, 2021

Full Review

Mattie Lucas

From the Front Row

An assured and disciplined work, raw like a festering wound, and devastatingly blunt, establishing Barnard as one of the strongest voices in British independent cinema.

Rated: 3/4

Aug 7, 2019

Full Review

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Synopsis

A hyperactive boy (Conner Chapman) and his best friend, a slow-witted youth with an affinity for horses, start collecting scrap metal for a shady dealer.

Director: Clio Barnard
Producer: Katherine Butler, Lizzie Francke
Screenwriter: Clio Barnard
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 1, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $10.5K
Runtime: 1h 31m

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