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Reviews
Manchester by the Sea (2016)
Shockingly bad
Making a movie is hard. This movie illustrates all that can go wrong. The director focused greatly on the little things in a scene. When Tarantino focuses on the price of a milk shake and the scene is a hit, a director will think 'I could focus on little things'. The scenes were poorly cut and jolted along. Often the drawn out boring scenes had long drawn out focus on things like pushing an elevator button. Not interesting things, not things which further the story, and not things which further show emotion of the characters. Actually it was really just one character. Casey Affleck, a janitor who is sad. He mopes around the entire movie. No acting, no emotion, just walking around looking sad. Yes his acting was horrible, but I still have to think the director could have given him some direction along the way. But no, the story had no meaningful direction, so why would I expect the director to care about the acting any more than he cares about the editing, storyline, or even sound track. The supporting actors played no meaningful part in the movie, but for the short time they were on screen there were some solid performances.
I think this movie is getting high reviews because it is being confused with a introspective artsy film. It is not. I think one star is extremely harsh for a movie, but this one earned it.
Cake (2014)
Excellent acting, that's about it
This movie is very similar to the french film Blue. The movie starts by introducing a woman who is depressed because of personal tragedy while also experiencing physical pain. Jennifer Aniston delivers a strong performance as do all of the supporting cast. But the movie never has a story. The movie is very realistic and accurately portrays the feeling of depression. But there isn't a story, and that should be noted in any review. I could imagine being in the mood to watch a performance of a woman dealing with overwhelming depression. But most days I would find this to be a well directed movie of an awful script. I gave it 4 stars, but it would likely get much less without the quality acting performances.