First time i saw this film (a few years ago) I thought it was dreadful. Irritating actors doing irritating characters doing irritating acting. And having seen it again they’re still irritating. There must come a point in Mike Leigh’s much vaunted “method” of character improvisation where he loses objective judgement; he’s so closely, and myopically, [...]
Who would you rather be? A morose Melancholic? Or a happy-go-lucky Sanguine? Can you choose the temperament you are? And can you choose to use it for good or are you simply trapped by it, stuck inside with who you inevitably have to be? These are the kind of questions you could ask watching this [...]
This is the 6th Mike Leigh i’ve seen in the last 3 months (5 of them off of YouTube) It’s got all the usual bittersweet Pathos. But it’s also got an edgy kind of street-corner “nous”. Phil Daniels is what gives it edge; he’s the levva jacketted Cockney wide-boy older brother of dim younger bro [...]
I saw this back in the 90′s. I remember Brenda Blethyn crying all over the place and being irritatingly self-pitying. Blethyn is Cynthia, the weary middle-aged mom of surly Roxanne. Cynthia works in a cardboard factory, Roxanne is a roadsweeper. They ain’t exactly come up in the world. Timothy Spall – Maurice – as Cynthia’s [...]
This might be Mike Leighs best film. It’s certainly one of the best i’ve seen. Probably cus David Thewlis as disaffected Manc loser-loner “Johnny” is so spot on. He carries you right into the heart of the hurt of his woundedness. With such a caustic sense of futile frightening no-hope. It’s uncomfortable to watch. And [...]
Yet another Mike Leigh film i’m watching off YouTube. In the early days i’d come to his films expecting to be amused by how “awfully” comic his neurotic characters are. But this film didn’t make me laugh much. Made me feel sad and slightly depressed. It starts off promisingly. You’ve got Phil Davis as Cyril, [...]
Jane Horrocks virtually ruins this film with her nasal impersonation of a whiny cockney teenage bulimic. She’s like a nastier and unfunnier version of Harry Enfields spotty adolescent “Kevin”. Other Mike Leigh films have suffered from actors getting too “stuck”. Instead of creating credible “characters” they slide into grotesque caricature. Timothy Spall in this film [...]
Strictly speaking this isn’t a feature film but a play made for BBC 2. You’ve got “Mand” (Lesley Manville) as the newly married working class wife (with a fag on in that pic there) of Dick (Philip Davis) in his horrible cross-ply synthetic cardigan. They’ve just moved into their first house/home together in Canterbury. Next [...]
That’s the Pratt’s singing a song about “Going to the Zoo” to hapless Ray. They’ll want him to join in in a minute. The Pratts are fundamentalist vegetarian clap-clappy Christians. Candice-Marie writes poems about “Flowers that gwow in spwing“; her Aspergerish Keeth is a humourless number obsessive bore. “Wish you’d stop wushing Keeth” cries Candice-Marie. [...]
I didn’t laugh as much as i used to. I might laugh if i were watching this with somebody who hadn’t seen it before – like say, a foreign language student. Show them how awful we English were (and still are) It feels a bit dated in that slightly embarrassing 1970′s kind of way. It’s [...]
