Filter/Sort on current data without requery

Is there any way to allow some or all tables to apply filters or sorts on data that's already in the users browser rather than having to requery the database. Having tables that take 40-60 seconds to run (and not on a slow instance!) and then deciding you want to alphabetize the data you already retrieved means you're waiting another 40-60 seconds! I've already got the data on the page, it doesn't seem efficient to requery the database for a sort of data that doesn't affect the data's output. I can understand that potentially there are edge cases where changing a filter or sort could cause the results of a different column to change, but those cases should be able to be checked for and only require a new query in that instance.