The Grizzlies

The Grizzlies is a Canadian drama set in a small Arctic town where the community is dealing with an exceptionally high rate of suicide. Into this setting comes Russ Sheppard, a new teacher who introduces his Inuit students to lacrosse, a sport they have never encountered. As the students take up the game, it becomes a shared focus that changes the direction of their lives and their sense of what is possible for them.

Miranda de Pencier directed the film, working from a screenplay by Graham Yost and Moira Walley-Beckett. Ben Schnetzer plays Russ Sheppard, with Emerald MacDonald as Miranda Atatahak, Booboo Stewart as Kyle Aviak, Paul Nutarariaq as Zach, Ricky Marty-Pahtaykan as Adam Kikpak and Tantoo Cardinal as Janace among a credited cast of twenty. The production was a Canadian-American effort involving The Kennedy/Marshall Company, Mongrel Media, Pacific Northwest Pictures and Northwood Entertainment, and it runs 106 minutes.

Released in April 2019, the film holds a rating of 7.5 out of 10 on IMDb from around 3,000 votes and 7.2 out of 10 on TMDB from roughly 48 votes. The larger and more established IMDb sample suggests a generally favourable response, while the much smaller TMDB figure points in the same direction, though with far fewer viewers behind it.