The Grizzlies Parent Guide

Can you name Canada’s national sport? If you picked hockey, you’d be wrong. But so would almost everyone in the Great White North. The official national sport of Canada is actually lacrosse. What, you may ask, is lacrosse? Lacrosse is a team sport invented centuries ago by the Algonquin tribe of the St. Lawrence Valley. Players carry sticks fitted with small netted baskets that are used to throw a ball from player to player and into the opposing team’s goal. Lacrosse is also the sport at the heart of The Grizzlies, a thought-provoking film based on a true story and set in the Canadian territory of Nunavut.

It’s 2004 and the remote Northern town of Kugluktuk is suffering through an epidemic of substance abuse, domestic violence, and poverty. Into this troubled community comes Russ Sheppard (Ben Schnetzer), an earnest and callow young history teacher reeling from culture shock. Fresh out of university, Sheppard is biding time until he can get his dream job at a tony prep school. But the Kugluktuk school is worlds away from the academic atmosphere he’s aiming for. His students are disengaged, playing truant, refusing to do homework…and killing themselves. One commits suicide before the beginning of the year, and another does so after a break-up with his girlfriend. Desperate to find some way to teach pride, teamwork, and self-discipline to the teens, Sheppard begs and cajoles his way into starting a lacrosse team and then bribes one of the students into getting kids to turn up for practice.

Some viewers will complain that The Grizzlies falls into two movie tropes: the underdog sport film and the white savior narrative. They would be partially correct. Yes, this is a movie about a team facing long odds…but it doesn’t hew to a formulaic narrative arc. And, yes, it also follows the basic outline of a white savior film, but the movie makes very clear that the kids save themselves and Sheppard is only part of their story.

Parents considering The Grizzlies will be less likely to complain about these criticisms and more prone to object to some of the negative content in the movie. The first issue of concern will be suicide, with three occurring in the film. It is worth pointing out that the suicides are critical to the story and are not portrayed in graphic detail; in fact, the deaths occur off screen. There are also frequent scenes of domestic assault and references to the traumatic legacy of residential schools. The violence in the film feeds a vicious cycle of substance abuse and both teens and adults are frequently seen very drunk. There is also significant profanity, including a half dozen sexual expletives.

Negative content aside, The Grizzlies is well worth viewing for teens and their parents. It educates audiences about the harsh living conditions in the far North and about the tortured legacy of residential schools. It introduces audiences to some talented Inuit actors – Paul Nutarariaq, Anna Lambe, Emerald MacDonald, Booboo Stewart. And beyond that, it is a compelling story of the resilience of the human spirit. Watching Sheppard’s students overcome hopelessness and despair as they work together, face challenges with courage and optimism, and fight to improve their lives is truly inspiring. As Sheppard quotes with reference to his students, “What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.” And what lies within those young people is more valuable than all the diamonds buried under their permafrost.