U.K. director Mike Leigh directs films in a wide range of moods but his working-class dramas are what made his name. All or Nothing is an emotionally punishing story of everyday life on a lower rung of a stagnant economy, where nobody has dreams and pessimism is the order of the day. The bitterness and anger are most evident in the abusive attitudes and verbal brutality from one generation to the next, even with the caring, sensitive Penny (Lesley Manville) and the inoffensive Phil (Timothy Spall). Leigh’s players craft heartbreaking characters whose individual miseries can’t be dismissed. We invest heavily in the hope of a positive outcome even as everything we see says, ‘no.’ Yet the film’s honesty doesn’t want us to give up on these people.
All or Nothing
Blu-ray
Severin Films
2002 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 128 min. / Street Date November 23, 2021 / Available from Amazon / 29.95
Starring: Lesley Manville,...
All or Nothing
Blu-ray
Severin Films
2002 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 128 min. / Street Date November 23, 2021 / Available from Amazon / 29.95
Starring: Lesley Manville,...
- 12/4/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Director Mike Leigh’s social-personal observations of life as it is lived in the U.K. always get to me — this one may simply be a more realistic soap opera, but it’s so good that one pays no attention to technical matters, who the actors are or when they are ‘acting’ … it just ‘is,’ and it’s so involving that one becomes anxious over the smallest thing. Leigh’s most acclaimed picture is the perfect antidote for bloated event filmmaking. And unlike some of his pictures, you walk out with a smile on your face.
Secrets and Lies
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 1070
1996 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 142 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date March 30, 2021 / 39.95
Starring: Timothy Spall, Phyllis Logan, Brenda Blethyn, Claire Rushbrook, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Elizabeth Berrington, Michelle Austin, Lee Ross, Lesley Manville, Ron Cook, Emma Amos.
Cinematography: Dick Pope
Film Editor: Jon Gregory
Production Design: Alison Chitty
Original...
Secrets and Lies
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 1070
1996 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 142 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date March 30, 2021 / 39.95
Starring: Timothy Spall, Phyllis Logan, Brenda Blethyn, Claire Rushbrook, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Elizabeth Berrington, Michelle Austin, Lee Ross, Lesley Manville, Ron Cook, Emma Amos.
Cinematography: Dick Pope
Film Editor: Jon Gregory
Production Design: Alison Chitty
Original...
- 4/3/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Nobody stands up for Britons in the lower class trenches like the fierce, opinionated and outright brilliant Mike Leigh; his unusual writing and directing method yields terrific results in his first feature made for TV. And the early performances of Tim Roth, Phil Daniels and Gary Oldman should be the stuff of acting legend, ’80s style.
Meantime
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 890
1984 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 107 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date August 15, 2017 / 39.95
Starring: Marion Bailey, Phil Daniels, Tim Roth, Pam Ferris, Jeff Robert, Alfred Molina, Gary Oldman, Tilly Vosburgh, Eileen Davies, Peter Wight.
Cinematography: Roger Pratt
Film Editor: Lesley Walker
Original Music: Andrew Dickson
Produced by Graham Benson
Devised and Directed by Mike Leigh
Mike Leigh is something of an acquired taste, but I have to say that I haven’t forgotten anything of his that I’ve seen. There are of course his ‘special’ period recreations of Topsy-Turvy and Mr. Turner,...
Meantime
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 890
1984 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 107 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date August 15, 2017 / 39.95
Starring: Marion Bailey, Phil Daniels, Tim Roth, Pam Ferris, Jeff Robert, Alfred Molina, Gary Oldman, Tilly Vosburgh, Eileen Davies, Peter Wight.
Cinematography: Roger Pratt
Film Editor: Lesley Walker
Original Music: Andrew Dickson
Produced by Graham Benson
Devised and Directed by Mike Leigh
Mike Leigh is something of an acquired taste, but I have to say that I haven’t forgotten anything of his that I’ve seen. There are of course his ‘special’ period recreations of Topsy-Turvy and Mr. Turner,...
- 8/12/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Angelina Jolie takes on Sleeping Beauty while Terry Gilliam tackles Berlioz as the stars come out to confound our expectations in the coming year
Film
Angelina Jolie in Maleficent
Hollywood's most formidable leading lady is back after a relatively quiet spell, in a role playing on her scariness and seniority. This reinvented fairytale is a twist on The Sleeping Beauty, and Jolie is not playing the insipid dormant heroine with her crybaby attitude to finger-pricking but the evilly magnificent Maleficent, the sorceress who casts a spell on the demure young Princess Aurora. How did she get that way? Everything will depend on the script – but Jolie is always a great turn. Peter Bradshaw 30 May.
Natalie Portman in Jane Got a Gun
Natalie Portman is a Hollywood A-lister who first came to prominence in George Lucas's Star Wars prequel trilogy. She was compellingly vulnerable in Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan,...
Film
Angelina Jolie in Maleficent
Hollywood's most formidable leading lady is back after a relatively quiet spell, in a role playing on her scariness and seniority. This reinvented fairytale is a twist on The Sleeping Beauty, and Jolie is not playing the insipid dormant heroine with her crybaby attitude to finger-pricking but the evilly magnificent Maleficent, the sorceress who casts a spell on the demure young Princess Aurora. How did she get that way? Everything will depend on the script – but Jolie is always a great turn. Peter Bradshaw 30 May.
Natalie Portman in Jane Got a Gun
Natalie Portman is a Hollywood A-lister who first came to prominence in George Lucas's Star Wars prequel trilogy. She was compellingly vulnerable in Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan,...
- 1/1/2014
- by Peter Bradshaw, Tim Jonze, Sean O'Hagan, Mark Lawson, Andrew Dickson, Lyn Gardner, Jonathan Jones, Adrian Searle, Tom Service, Andrew Clements
- The Guardian - Film News
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