Bubbles, Tiers

Marxist ideology social context anti-colonialism
family city country

Old Ratings Compilation

For posterity.

2017 Top Ten List

TK

Four Modes of Documentary Storytelling

recording of everyday retracing event camera confession witnessing record

Manchester by the Sea Fragment

If Manchester by the Sea can be said to have a main visual motif, it is the harsh cold of winter. From the mounds of snow that Lee (Casey Affleck) shovels as he is introduced in the present, to the wispy breath of men struggling to get out of the chill, to the frozen ground that ultimately proves vital in the narrative, Kenneth Lonergan and cinematographer Jody Lee Lipes make plain the frigid backdrop where the film is set. But the content is anything but frozen; the setting informs but does not define the characters, their dreams, and their hang-ups. Against this harsh backdrop, Lonergan crafts something truly astonishing, a movie whose seemingly conventional nature only enhances its grasp of humanity.

Throughout his films, but especially in Manchester by the Sea, Lonergan works in paradoxically compatible modes of quotidian, often humorous interactions and devastating traumas.

Silence Thought

Arguably, the most challenging, rewarding films are those whose seams are apparent. Its flaws more often than not strengthen the mood of the movie, which is almost always a labor of love rather than a film that seems easily made. Silence is one of those movies.