manchester by the sea

Manchester By The Sea opens on a flashback, but you don’t realize this until later. That’s not a spoiler, it is thematic layering. Director Kenneth Lonergan began his career on the stage in 1996, finding success with his play, This Is Our Youth. And it seems that Lonergan -interesting that the first part of his surname is “loner”- has continued to explore, and mature within, a study of recurring themes; maturity through loss, a discovery of love’s thesis through our responsibilities to one another, to our loved ones and to community, and death. Revelation in death, through means of what can be described as an earnest deconstructive lens pointed towards our collective misunderstandings of death (of existence itself, and therefore the quest!) as a consequence of fear. It is notable that Lonergan was responsible for the screenplays of both Analyze This (1999) and You Can Count On Me (2000), the […]

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