Manchester by the Sea

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Steven M. My favorite movie of that year! Simply splendid. The acting and directing and writing are beautiful. My pick for Best Picture over Moonlight. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 10/08/21 Full Review Katie D Perfect movie for a gray day! This film feels a little long and the editing/cinematography could use some work, but the acting is award-worthy! It is definitely Casey Affleck's best work and also a wonderful performance by Lucas Hedges! Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/15/21 Full Review Blu B All Time Classic. It's a shame Kenneth Lonergan has only directed 2 films in over 25 years. His style harkns back to a bygone era of dramas from the Golden Era. The acting, cinematography, and editing on display is just masterful. This is such sophisticated, patient, challenging storytelling. Affleck & Hedges are amazing together. There's so much love, hatred, and humanity between the two whenever their on screen. Everyone else does a really good job with very emotional performances and sincere delivery that makes them stand out even without much screentime. The dialouge is excellent and so human. The editing is such an acheivement here. Out of order flashbacks on top of juggling two characters and not always keeping them together but never feeling jumpy and bringing it all back effortlessly is just amazing to watch. The cineamtography is dull but never lifeless and the framing, camerawork is exceptional. I love how there is almost no medium shots in this at all. It gives everything a distinct immersive look. The pacing and music is really good too. There isn't much that happens here once these two meet up. It's really just a character study and deep dive into grief, living with your mistakes, and there are no easy answers to things despite how much you want there t be for the two main characters. The fact it refuses to offer easy answers to complex issues, doesn't push an agenda, or make the characters flawless is what makes it so relatable an interesting despite a lack of action, comedy, or anything catchy. It's a very deep, sincere, and sad but never dark film. Everyone should give this a try once. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 03/30/25 Full Review Richie M There's 2hrs of my life I can't get back! Rated 0.5/5 Stars •  Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 04/13/25 Full Review Dan P Such a beautiful film, but so sad. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/23/25 Full Review David S Critic reviews are worthless. What’s there to like about this movie? The acting was good, but the movie was very slow and didn’t address the main issue. If Lee isn’t going to deal with tragedy that happened, then why doesn't he just kill himself? His ex-wife tries, along with a few other people, and the movie ends leaving everything pretty open ended. Honestly, it probably would have been a better movie if he offed himself at the end and they wrapped everything up. Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 04/13/25 Full Review Read all reviews

Manchester by the Sea

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