Manchester By the Sea may be a somber and dour experience, but it’s one full of hope that people can survive grief.

| Original Score: A | Aug 8, 2024

Lonergan interrogates the realities of grief with sober restraint.

| Dec 12, 2023

Manchester overflows with ripe dialogue, developed characters, and a toughmindedness that resists the all-American bromide that with a little emotional elbow grease, anyone can transcend their past and get on with it.

| Jan 18, 2023

There are some awfully good moments in "Manchester by the Sea," and there aren’t really any awful moments.

| Original Score: B+ | Aug 25, 2022

Lonergan balances unrecoverable anguish with tender warmth in Manchester by the Sea, a film that considers a character unable to forgive himself and hesitant to engage with anyone ever again.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Apr 5, 2022

A showcase in the power of understatement...Manchester By The Sea achieves great impact by feeling devastatingly real.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Feb 18, 2022

Manchester by the Sea is a study of guilt and the complexity of recovering from it. A modern day tragedy that will surely bring tears but also bring hope that Lee may one day say goodbye to his past and forgive himself.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 14, 2022

Manchester by the Sea defies description in a really, really good way. It's not flashy or formulaic in the way some fish-out-of-water stories are. Instead, the story of a quietly suffering man

| Aug 26, 2021

The sort of understated, under-the-radar drama that can use all the help it can get to stand out in an increasingly overcrowded marketplace.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 17, 2021

Arguably 2016's most notable film about loss and grief, one that tells its story with the scope of an epic while never leaving the Boston area.

| Apr 13, 2021

It deals with very real, very difficult human situations but does so with honesty and a great deal of unexpected humour and wisdom.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Feb 3, 2021

The great moments are haunting, though they're buried deep within a numbing amount of extraneous normalcy.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Dec 5, 2020

Manchester By The Sea doesn't play by the rules and that is its greatest asset as a film. It will break even the toughest cynic in the world.

| Nov 10, 2020

Despite the heart-breaking premise, the film is filled with unexpected moments of humour and warmth.

| Oct 27, 2020

Becomes nothing short of a remarkable piece of filmmaking.

| Original Score: 3.5/4.0 | Sep 15, 2020

Kenneth Lonergan's film is a humane examination of the suffering of an ordinary man, whose terrible personal tragedy has emotionally crippled him.

| Aug 13, 2020

Whilst Manchester by the Sea didn't resonate with me entirely, it's hard to deny that capture of realism which works so well.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 17, 2020

Lonergan masterfully directs a humane film that explores a very simple concept, that is then expanded to reveal a redemption and mourning story. [Full review in Spanish]

| Jul 2, 2020

The film is the portrait not of a man but of his self-loathing, which needs an environment and community to reflect off of, like the moon reflects sunlight.

| Jul 1, 2020

Lonergan, who also writes the solid script, adjusts the film's gloomy background with cautious authorship that, while seemingly simple, is shamelessly profound. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 8/10 | Jun 27, 2020