“The Society only loves you when you shrink into what they can understand”
One of the most profound themes to reflect in art is dealing with grief. It is such a delicate subject that a fine line lingers between underwhelming and overwhelming the audience. Manchester by The Sea does is on the line. Casey Affleck, of course, won Oscar for Best Actor for the film, and his portrayal of a conflicted man dealing with loss, and fated retribution.
Manchester by the Sea is a sublime drama; it does not overwhelm you. Everything is subtle. A lone man’s struggle with his own mind, his past actions, and confrontation with the remains of the past. It is arthouse cinema flirting with mainstream. I urge you to watch it, if not for anything, then Affleck’s acting, his dialogue with the audience that vocalises pain.
Speaking of dialogue with the audience, starting with Notes from The Underground by Dostoyevsky was one of hardest task I have undertaken. It is a stuporous undertaking of a man cut off from society and rambles endless on existentialistic themes that f*** with your mind. For example, he whines about a tooth pain, and wonders who can he blame for that. He abhors law of nature, and somewhere also detests his own stinking existence. It is an outburst of enormous philosophical proportions. Read it slow, chew it slow, relish and then let it settle into the gastronomy of senses.
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