2016: The Year in Film: "Manchester by the Sea" Review

I'm going to momentarily nerd out here. We're in the midst of a revolution of sorts (that briefly autocorrected to "shorts" and I considered leaving it just for the lulz) in the production and distribution of traditional media. The longstanding power players are seeing their ability to put a stranglehold on what's produced and released diminished by a combination of factors - new media players, a decreased market share of the traditional power brokers, increasing options for distribution and so on. All of that is a long way of saying that Manchester by the Sea is interesting not only because it's a very good movie, but also because Amazon Films produced it and the shaking up of the existent studio system can only be a good thing as far as filmgoers are concerned.

So writer/director Kenneth Lonergan has been around for a while now - he wrote Analyze This and Gangs of New York back in the day, but he's never really worked all that much.  This is only his third directed film since 2000. Casey Affleck has, for my money, long been the better acting Affleck. (Ben is a great director though guys!) So Casey getting some awards bait fare can only be a good thing as far as fans of quality acting are concerned.

In Manchester by the Sea Casey plays Lee Chandler, a hard drinking loner working as a janitor in Boston when he gets the call that his brother has passed away. He finds himself tasked with caring for his teenage nephew and trying to pick up the pieces.

The Good: the writing is great and the acting is tremendous, from all corners. Affleck, newcomer Lucas Hodges (who plays Patrick, the teenage nephew) and Michelle Williams (who plays Lee's ex wife) all earned much deserved acting nominations for their work here, and if any of all of them won it would in no way be an injustice. My man Kyle "Coach Taylor" Chandler plays... Joe Chandler (I'm not sure why if you're going to cast a dude already named Chandler you just change his first name but whatever) and is solid in all of his scenes. Affleck, whom I've always been a fan of, gives the performance of his career, with layers of grief and regret underlying an outward humor and bitterness. One of the things I appreciated most about this film was the subtle surprises and twists from the way that a traditional narrative of this type would unfold. I won't say more than that in order to avoid spoilers, but I'll just say that this film turns out to be much more than the trailer would have you expect. By mixing grief with flashbacks, humor, and scenes of real bonding and affection, this film is a very real, poignant, and human look at very ordinary people in an extraordinary situation.



The Bad: there are parts of this film that are just DEVASTATING. Like a nuclear weapon of grief. That's not necessarily a bad thing - but there are parts that are just too much. Egregious even. Plus, and I say this as someone who's obsessed with The Departed, I've had enough with Bahhhhstan accents, guys. I seriously laughed every single time someone said "gahhhdian" and I don't think that's what the film was going for.

In all, this is a tremendously acted, well crafted, well written story of very human grief and growth featuring two tremendous performances at its heart. Its well worth watching for the performances alone, and this one will stick with you. It deserves its Oscar love.

8/10.