The Rule Of Three: Its Mike Leigh

Oh well, perhaps Alba will give his views on 'Another Year'...

I thought it was a great - a return to the miserablism that is Leigh's natural metier after the mis-fire of Happy Go Lucky. Up there with his best films.

I think it's got a lot of depth. Still not sure what to make of the two led characters - Tom and Gerri- who seem initially warm but have a distinct edge. Lesley Manville is magnificent as Mary, the overly dependent friend, who becomes the centre of the film for me.

Lesley Manville at work - the best piece of acting I've seen this year so:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/audiosrc/movies/MOVIES_BREAK_Manville.jpg

What would you say their distinct edge is?

I'm not sure if Mike Leigh intended it so, but I think it's a horrible film, not just because we can weep at the "poor Mary" thing, but because it seemed so suggest, to me at least, that Tom and Gerri's happiness comes at the cost of others' misery. That stable families can make others feel worse. That happiness is almost a zero-sum game.

I liked Happy Go Lucky a lot (too) but it did seem like he was rather in the grip of an idea, the idea of Poppy.

Well, Gerri for example, seems to go into professional counsellor mode and deals with Mary with a certain coldness at the time when she most needs help.

Tom insensitively reminisces about his and Gerri's amazing holiday, practically a sabbatical in fact, at a moment when Mary and his brother are feeling particularly vulnerable.

(looks like Ruth - Mark Fowler's wife - from Eastenders is being channeled in that photo)

The only jarring note is that the son - Joe - reminded me so strongly of George Osbourne in appearance.

Yikes.

The New Yorker didn't like it either.

IIRC, Karina Longworth's #1 of 2010 is Trash Humpers. FWIW.

Another Year, the 10th feature-length British soap written and directed by Mike Leigh

not sure i wanna read a silly overly-pleased with itself zing in the very first line of a nyt review

never heard of a "nooner" before either

Another Year, the 10th feature-length British soap written and directed by Mike Leigh

my second favourite karina

i always wanna read a silly overly-pleased with itself zing in the very first line of a village voice review

i hate mike leigh but also feel that karina longworth is a bad joke so

decisions decisions

this isn't her worst review, from what i saw in the 30 seconds i devoted to skimming it

'naked' is a rush, super conflicted and relentlessly unpleasant, the rest of the time he seems content to please sorta old ppl who 'read the guardian society pages'

he must hate those ppl even more than he hates himself tho

i always wanna read a silly overly-pleased with itself zing in the very first line of a village voice review

― Rockcrit from the Tuoms (nakhchivan), Wednesday, December 29, 2010

oh lol don't know what happened there

i think mike leigh is really suspect like in interviews and things, but i tend to like his films \o/

u confused her flaky challops for the sonorous bossman crowther enunciations of ao scott

dudes made some good movies cant front

one possible problem with the zing is imprecision

leigh has made far more than 10 feature-length... films, or tv films

but 'another year' is his tenth theatrical feature film not counting 'bleak moments' which probably didn't get a US release

so ok: but 'topsy turvey' can't accurately be zinged as a soap opera (nor 'naked' or 'vera drake')

wouldnt spend a lot of time workshopping karey longdub's zings iiwy

why not vera drake? because it's period? why not naked, bc u have time for it?

a feature length soap opera is a perfectly fine thing for a film to be, if it's a good one, and leigh works within that area. she's using it as a zing but it's a hollow one.

i like the zing cuz i kind assume she has never seen an actual british soap opea

_____ is the seventh feature length HBO serial from director _____

why not vera drake? because it's period? why not naked, bc u have time for it?

― zvookster, Thursday, December 30, 2010 12:20 AM (24 minutes ago) Bookmark

because they're not zingable as soap operas i guess. doubt i'd like 'naked' now either way.

i know what she means, obviously, and it's sort of funny that this guy who gets compared with ozu is also dismissed as a maker of soap operas.

soap operas are shit and i don't think there is such a thing as a good one.

rmde at ppl comparing him to ozu

i do! and i can see that corrie at its best is much like leigh at his best (secrets and lies) but the influence goes both ways.

doubt i'd like 'naked' now either way.

i hated the film but having rewatched some of them i have to say that some that i thought were good at the time are terrible to revisit (high hopes, life is sweet), others have good and bad things about them but others still just get better and better (vera drake, secrets and lies).

xpost

i do! think there is such a thing as a good one (soap).

i remember kinda liking all or nothing

his treatment of working class characters may be more 'problematic' but it's less boring than his weird enduring love for social workers and teachers and stuff

ehhh. i haven't seen much ozu. i wouldn't roll my eyes at the comparison entirely, but ozu is clearly more interested in form, or is just more interesting formally. but, because of the culture-gap, partly, i don't get ozu's characters in the same way i all too 'get' leigh's and think they're bad.

less boring than his weird enduring love for social workers and teachers and stuff

only weird until you think about who goes to see mike leigh films </some murdoch press/telegraph guy>

i can't think of that many Leigh films featuring teachers or social workers - secrets and lies, happy go lucky, what else? - but why shouldn't he show that in a positive light? it's probably part of his interest that you see the work that people daily do and do well. it's not a weird enduring love, it's just part of what he's doing.

i think he's made a lot of shit films but some of them are incredible.

I like Leigh yet Naked bores me to tears -- and, yeah, it's unpleasant.

I haven't seen AY, but his last six or seven movies strike me as his best.

this film doesn't look like it would appeal to me but then again most of his films really don't until i see them, and i usually think they're pretty dope. and yeah karina l. is kind of a joke, like most of the vv media critics these days.

Leigh films I like:

Life Is Sweet
Secrets and Lies
Career Girls
Vera Drake
Happy-Go-Lucky

Leigh films I was meh on:

Naked
Topsy-Turvy
All or Nothing

(I'd kind of like to re-watch Topsy-Turvy, though. I feel like I missed something.)

Also saw a theatrical production of Abigail's Party, which was pretty good.

fwiw (nothing) Another Year is my favorite film this year

but his last six or seven movies strike me as his best.

With these last three, he's nearly lost me. "Condescending" is a fair word.

Imelda Staunton does give the best 5-minute performance of the year in this one, along with Charlotte Rampling in Life During Wartime.

the TV films of the '70s and early '80s easily beat these last few.

Meh. They're so indifferently shot.

I so don't care.

'nuts in may' is his best joint

This one is quite interestingly shot - with the photography reflecting the 4 changing seasons.

This is the only film I bothered to see twice at the cinema in 2010. I wanted to see it the second time to get a second impression of Lesley Manville's acting.

there was *so much* of her acting I think I got it twice the first time.

A+++

I recently found out that the main character in "Nuts in May" was based on my much-loved high school history teacher (and 1970s neighbour to Mike Leigh). Weird.

man, another year is super good

i thought itd be boring since its about old people but it owns pretty hard, totally not what i expected at all - only the third leigh ive seen, and by far the best (other two were topsy turvy and nuts in may)

found myself wishing we got more of the imelda staunton character, i found her captivating - but we basically did get more of her at the end

i have to admit ive been confusing this guy with mike nichols for years - which always made nuts in may really confusing for me because it makes me think of elaine may and etc.

Man, TamTam, if that's only the third Leigh film you've seen, you're in for a treat.

I've only seen Naked, Secrets and Lies and Career Girls but I liked all of them v much.

Reading through this thread I noticed mention of a movie I've never seen . . . Nil by Mouth? Directed by Gary Oldman and Staring Ray Winstone? How have I never even heard of this? It sounds like it could be my favorite movie I've never even watched.