10 Incredible Movies You'll Never Watch Again (And Why)

4. Manchester By The Sea (2016)

Like Blue Valentine, Manchester By The Sea is a deeply affecting, horribly traumatic movie without ever wading into provocative, emotionally lurid waters for the sake of impact. It merely feels a deeply, deeply sad story about troubled characters in such a way that it gets into your bones and breaks them from the inside.

It’s essentially a story of how one wound that would be difficult enough to bear - the death of a family member at a young age and the effective orphaning of his son - tears open older wounds of the brother charged with being the guardian of his nephew.

And despite this sort of set-up usually leading to a revelation and a happy ending, Manchester By The Sea just piles on the misery until Casey Affleck’s lead realises he cannot have his epiphany. It’s a sad, hollowing full-stop and by then you’re so wrung out, repetition is not an option.