Manchester by the Sea - Movie Reviews (2025)

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

Full Review | Original Score: A | Aug 8, 2024

Lonergan interrogates the realities of grief with sober restraint.

Full Review | 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.

Full Review | Jan 18, 2023

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

Full Review | 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.

Full Review | 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.

Full Review | 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.

Full Review | 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

Full Review | 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.

Full Review | 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.

Full Review | 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.

Full Review | 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.

Full Review | 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.

Full Review | Nov 10, 2020

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

Full Review | Oct 27, 2020

Becomes nothing short of a remarkable piece of filmmaking.

Full Review | 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.

Full Review | 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.

Full Review | 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]

Full Review | 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.

Full Review | 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]

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