‘Stay Awake’ Review: Becoming Their Mother’s Caretakers

Jamie Sisley’s narrative characteristic directorial debut, “Stay Awake,” just isn’t a novel story for these with a member of the family or liked one battling dependancy. A small-town drama, the movie stars Wyatt Oleff and Fin Argus as two teenage brothers, Ethan and Derek, who’re pressured to turn into caregivers for his or her mom, Michelle (Chrissy Metz), after she turns into depending on prescription painkillers. It’s an all-too-familiar state of affairs throughout the United States, and the highs, lows and disappointments that Michelle and her sons face all through her rocky remedy are each extremely human and sadly predictable.

“Stay Awake” does its greatest to middle each its dependancy story and Ethan and Derek’s personal separate coming-of-age arcs, all with out demonizing any of its characters.

It’s an admirable aim that typically comes off as clunky and meandering, equivalent to when Ethan awkwardly breaks up together with his girlfriend by revealing he plans to go to a distinct school. The ensuing drama doesn’t fairly match as much as the life-or-death stakes current elsewhere within the movie, and even to different conditions Ethan faces, like having a secret crush on a male classmate. Despite such shortcomings, Oleff, Argus and Metz reach depicting each the frustrations and the compassion related to caring for family who repeatedly hurt themselves.

Stay Awake
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 34 minutes. In theaters.