MoFo Reviewers
Manchester By the Sea
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Spotlight
Read the full review here.
Manchester By the Sea
Acting in Manchester is excellent. Much of the movie is Lee, and Casey Affleck deserves the attention he’s received for creating this character. Everybody else in the cast is similarly believable. Michelle Williams is excellent as Randi, as is Lucas Hedges as Patrick. In fact, everybody in the cast is excellent and completely believable. It’s definitely an actor’s movie, a low budget drama and not a visual spectacle. Effects and action are near zero since the entire film is about plot and characters. It has a lot of dialog and personal tension. It’s set in several very old towns in coastal New England and has a lot of thick accents. The genealogy of the people involved in the movie (Affleck, Damon and a minor character who may be from the Wahlberg family) suggests that this film is something very personal, being part of the world where they grew up. Sometimes the fruit does not fall too far from the tree.
Spotlight
McCarthy and co-screenwriter Josh Singer also hit a bullseye with the impact that this investigation has on the personal lives of the Spotlight team, or more specifcally, the lack thereof. These four people appear to have no personal life at all and always seem to be at work. We learn early on that Rezendes is married but we're well into act two before it is revealed that his wife left him because of his obsession with his work and, sadly, he really doesn't seem to care. The investigation also reveals startling personal connections to Robinson, Carroll, and Pfeiffer that might make some back off, but these reporters never take their eye off the prize, even when their investigation is stalled by the events of 9/11.