PS: This is not a movie review, this is me casually typing in the words that are coming out of my mouth starting now. And it's mainly about 'Manchester by the sea', but there's some other stuff too.
"I can't beat it"
Two years back or something I saw a cut scene from 'Manchester by the sea', it was like an emotional scene involving Casey Affleck and Michelle Williams. It was so heartbreaking and since I kinda have a thing for sad movies I decided to watch it. So I search for the movie and see this poster :
I thought it was just like one of those sad romantic movies, you know like 'Blue Valentine', which I still haven't seen. So I dropped it.
Two years passed, it came upon my shoulders to write a short write up about this same movie for a College thing. So I'm like okay, let's watch it anyway.
2 hours and 17 minutes later I am telling you, I haven't seen a movie which has portrayed the image and exact emotions of a broken man so true and raw. But then again I'm not a proper cinephile or something. Still, fuck dude.
We all have done or experienced some shit that we would like to forget and move on from. We all have wished at least once in our lives that selective-memory-erase-machine from "The Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind' to be true. It could be people we've parted ways with, people who've left us or passed away, or like a traumatic experience or something. You get it.
So that's basically the movie, except Lee Chandler. Oh well, watch it for yourself.
The basic point of the movie is this, "Is it actually possible to beat and overcome guilt and grief"? Or does it like stick with you for the rest of your life and eat you up like a parasite? Or like leave a hole so large inside you that you don't feel a damn thing anymore.
I don't wanna talk about the movie a lot, because that might ruin your experience. And I also wanna warn you, this is definitely not everyone's cup of tea. Some people may find it boring and slow-paced and what not.
So basically this is the plot. Lee Chandler has his own past and shit to deal with. He's living a damp , sad life out in some cold place, working as a janitor, cleaning shit from toilets of shitty land ladies so that he can earn a buck or two and drink it off at a nearby bar and he's lost his interest in women so he spends his energy picking fights with whoever dares to take a second look at him. Yeah and he swears a lot.
I don't wanna tell the rest.
Not an interesting character I get it. But The-Broken-Man has always been one of human kind's greatest fascination. And many filmmakers has tried to tell the story and only a few of them have really accomplished the task. I mean it's easy to make a story where the story starts with a broken guy, he meets a girl/mentor, changes his life, a few obstacles on the road, our hero wins, curtains down. Applause. I mean anyone can come up with this. But to truly potray the misery, the guilt, not many has been able to do that.
The cast is good, the screenplay is so awesome that it won the Academy Award that year. I warn you the movie is sad, but it's one of the best sad movies out there.
1. Casey Affleck
I know it's cliche but still, "He wasn't acting, he was actually living the role".
I mean you can't distinguish Casey Affleck in this movie. You only see Lee Chandler. And his face of hopelessness with cold and damp eyes.
I mean you see his face and you wonder why hasn't this dude killed himself, yet.
2. Michelle Williams
Not much screentime, but she did just as good as Casey Affleck. The chemistry was good. Again very real and raw emotions. Because we see some actresses cry, and it doesn't' make us feel anything. I mean did you felt sad when Rachel was all emotional and sobbing in friends. I didn't. So you know what I mean, right?
Lucas Hedges, Mathew Broderick, everyone did their part, raw and real.
Oh, wait Mathew fucking Broderick, Damn. It was him. Why didn't I recognize him in the movie?
Oh damn. it also makes me kinda sad, like how time flies right?
So yeah, I recommend it but then I've always felt like my taste in cinema is very different and depends on my at-the-time mood. Still, if you're sitting in your room thinking about how vast the universe and here you are inside these four walls for most part of the day. And it feels like they're getting closer and compressed and you feel like your oxygen intake is getting depleted every day. Just watch this.
From my notepad
Yesterday a friend sent me this quote by Stephen King about writing, "Amateurs wait for inspiration, rest of us get up and go to work". So thanks to her and Stephen King, I'm gonna get some activity going on here from now on.
So like I don't care if this shit's good or whatever. But I am here and I'm leaving my footprints, I'm pressing my palms on the wet concrete. I'm engraving my name on the bark of the banyan tree in the central yard of my school. I'm drawing a smiley emoji on the metal rusty walls of the bathroom of a train. I'm laying my name on the beach and waiting for the waves to fade it way. I'm shouting "fuck you" from the top of the mountain and it's echoing back so I feel like I'm not alone and the universe is so big and we're all tiny bits compared to it. I'm nothing. You're nothing. We're just a bunch of bones and meat nicely fit together and formed inside our mother's stomach because one night our parents were more horny than usual. Shit. Isn't that funny. If it wasn't for that, fuck, man that's some deep twisted spiral thought trip to go on in, maybe another night.
Years from now some dude will stumble on this and say, "Oh, What the fuck is this guy saying".
Yeah, good to see you too.
Sayonara.
***
Images: Google
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