so I liked Manchester by the Sea, quite a bit about it actually. I liked its very low key nature, its lack of histrionics, its frankness about typical teenage behavior (even the garage band the kid is in sounds believably sub-professional), its naturalistic humor. Its a good movie, full stop. But I'm not over the moon for it like lots of critics I read and respect are. But I can clearly see it as a very well done character study of a disconnected and perpetually grieving man, as a portrait of the everyday and mundane nature of life events both large and small. Hell, I loved Certain Women from a few months back and it played many of the same notes (also with Michelle Williams to boot). Its a film I respect, I liked, but I can't say why it didn't do more for me, nothing is really wrong with it after all. Maybe it needed some Rutger Hauer, yeah, more movies could use more Rutger Hauer in em', that's gotta be it.
So I didn't like the film above as much as I figured I would, but Split exceeded my low expectations for it. Its got unpredictable twists galore, and a game cast that's fully committed to its wholesale batshit crazy scenario. Its also hits a lot of thematically similar points as his earlier films, the ones you perhaps enjoyed before he went right up his own arse (The Village being my cutoff point), sometimes in some delightful ways. But at its heart, its a fun, really goofy thriller that's often funny on purpose and is even sometimes inventive. It feels weird to recommend a Shyamalan film, but its 2017, we're bound to see weirder stuff happen before the year is out.
