Manchester by the Sea (2016)

Casey Affleck is a star among constellations in this 2016 drama movie – he proves why his Best Actor Academy Award and BAFTA were deserved as self-deprecating loser Lee, who’s forced to step up and look after his nephew when his fisherman brother dies at sea. But rather than move the boy to the city, Lee moves to the seaside town his brother’s family call home as he bonds with his nephew and the boy’s mom.

The cast is strong, from Casey through to Michelle Williams, and Lucas Hedges as Lee’s nephew. It’s not quite a coming-of-age story, yet it’s got that feeling to it. Manchester by the Sea is just so much more and the writing captivates you.

It’s difficult to describe as the emotions are knotted together, yet in a perfectly understandable way, which is how Matt Zoller Seitz from rogerebert.com sees it: “It contains multitudes of emotions, people and ideas, in such abundance. It’s a movie you’ll want to see a second time with someone who hasn’t seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.”