The Mike Leigh Poll

Naked

It doesn't seem to be available on DVD, wonder why.

I just watched it tonight.

i've seen the run from high hopes through topsy-turvy, i think naked had the biggest impact on me, but all of them are worthwhile except for career girls

Seen Meantime and then High Hopes on. Lots of good stuff here, but I think I'd need to re-watch some of these to confirm any sort of order (Life is Sweet I've not seen since it came for example--but I recall really liking it then.) Instinct says it's probably between Topsy-Turvy and Naked (which really couldn't be more different, could they?)

Secrets & Lies without question.

I can't think of a performance in recent memory that could so easily have been as awful as Brenda Blethyn's in Secrets & Lies.

I think the same could be said of Thewlis' role in Naked.

Leigh has lots of a good stuff (and a very consistent basic level of quality)
it's between Naked and the crazy-funny Life is Sweet for me. gonna vote for the latter, Naked will win anyway :)
High Hopes is one of his most depressing. Secrets & Lies has a couple of amazing magical moments.

"I can't think of a performance in recent memory that could so easily have been as awful as Brenda Blethyn's in Secrets & Lies."

Awfully realistic. I've met that woman.

One more reason to hate the iMdB! It made my favorite of his TV films, the hysterically funny Home Sweet Home, invisible to Alfred... because it's an "episode" (95 mins.) of an anthology series!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084082/

Anyway, Naked of course. Followed by HSH and Topsy-Turvy.

I got it from Wikipedia!

Naked was made for you, Morbs. What's HSH?

Voted Meantime, just ahead of Nuts in May. Much underated - in a perfect world it'd be quoted as much as Withnail & I ('have we got ants?', 'and one for Ron - later 'on' etc etc).

And, proof that for all his faults Leigh has an eye for the coming actor - Gary Oldman, Phil Daniels and Tim Roth all in their first big roles...

HSH = Home Sweet Home. Tim Spall plays a stupendously dense mailman. obv Wiki took it from iMdb.

yes, Johnny wd've been SB'd.

xxp uh pretty sure Phil Daniels had big roles prior to 1983 or 1981 (whichever Meantime actually came out in.)

I'm voting for the excruciating Grown-Ups though the first two are iconic bits of British TV. Blethyn is awful (almost but not quite)beyond belief in this (compliment).

Oh, and you're missing Bleak Moments too - his first feature from 1971 and with much richer photography than his later BBC productions. Apt title, mind. Filmed round where I live in SE London.

yes, Wiki sucks.

Happy-Go-Lucky was one of the most daring, moving films I've seen in ages, and it has an incredible lead performance by Sally Hawkins, so I gotta got for that. I'm probably exactly the kind of viewer it was targeted for, though, because the whole movie is a big anti-cynicist manifesto, and I'm a big anti-cynic.

I voted Nuts in May because it's funny as fuck and I never get tired of doing Candice Marie impressions and because it's the single best thing Leigh ever did so BOOM.

I do love

Oops. I do love Naked and it's probably his "best" film but Topsy-Turvy is just so much fun, so i voted for that.

You've also missed Hard Labour, another early 70s piece of Play for Today grimness. It was shown on BBC4 recently as past of a Liz Smith night.

Happy-Go-Lucky was one of the most daring, moving films I've seen in ages, and it has an incredible lead performance by Sally Hawkins, so I gotta got for that. I'm probably exactly the kind of viewer it was targeted for, though, because the whole movie is a big anti-cynicist manifesto, and I'm a big anti-cynic.

I wonder about this...There is a reading of this film that Sally Hawkins's 'happy go luckyness' is just as manic in its own way as David Thewlis in Naked. So in a sense it's a mirror image of Naked - the flip manic side to Naked's depressive side.

I am cynical about its alleged anti-cynicism manifesto - and don't think you should necessarily take what Mike Leigh says at face value. But then I'm a big cynic.

On another Mike Leigh thread, I'm still waiting for more views on this film - not enough people commented on it.

I posted a few herehere.

i vote for nuts in may! finally just saw it last month and i loved it. omg, the scene where they make that poor guy sing along to their song...words fail me.

Just thought of two more that are missing: Four Days In July (set in the Falls Road area of Belfast) and The Permissive Society. Neither of which were likely to garner any votes anyway.

re-poll

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a82/bobbysixer/cheerupmate.jpg

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Super hard to choose. Voted Life Is Sweet for partly sentimental reasons (it was my first Mike Leigh).

Also, RIP Katrin Cartlidge ;_;

Lots of good choices here, but I can think of few theatrical experiences equal to the first time I saw "Topsy-Turvy." Utterly enthralled.

little-known fact: I own a Career Girls t shirt

Soft spot for Abigail's Party. Would love to see it again... is there a quality difference between the us or uk dvd?

Haven't seen the last two yet for some reason.

"Life is Sweet" is the King of Mike Leigh movies. Next I would go for "Naked" and then for "Career Girls" as a distant third.
The only one that doesn't really fit into his works for me is Topsy-Turvy. It's sort of like his "Gosford Park," for me--the exception that proves the work.

Abigail's Party

everyone, just say what you think

Life is Sweet was the first Mike Leigh movie I saw, and I have more affection for it than his other movies even though some of them are technically "better" for one reason or another.

Don't know much Leigh but for me, 'Topsy Turvy' just beats out 'Naked', as fond as I am of that film.

Err... Nut in May I guess. Don't like this guy's output tbh. Naked is such a stupid, stupid film.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

yay bitter nihilist antihero!

topsy turvy is amazing. missed this poll.

Tsk emos.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x55y5q_nuts-in-may-part-1-of-5_shortfilms

I wonder about this...There is a reading of this film that Sally Hawkins's 'happy go luckyness' is just as manic in its own way as David Thewlis in Naked. So in a sense it's a mirror image of Naked - the flip manic side to Naked's depressive side.

Well yeah, it's pretty clear Hawkins's character isn't quite normal, a point which is brought up by the driving instructor (even though he's pretty fucked up himself). But I thought Leigh's point was, that despite her (often manic) perkyness and optimism she can still manage in the world, and she doesn't need to be "brought down" (which is something a cynical viewer would expect to happen). Even if she's not quite normal, her quirks are mostly benevolent, and there's no reason to think something is "wrong" with her.

Finally saw 'Happy-Go-Lucky'. Amazing performances. Still trying to figure out what I thought of it.

I think it's more nuanced than some of the critics have made it to be; certainly the scenes between Poppy and the taxi driver (especially the last one) make it into something more complex than just a optimist manifesto. But I think it still is anti-cynical in the way it suggests Poppy (no matter how manic or mental she is) and her views have no less validity in the world than any other viewpoints, even if her is not quite as popular as some of the more cynical alternatives.

Be sure to report back when you've figured it out.

(x-post)

would have voted 'nuts in may'. there are quite a few other tv films missing from the poll.

i think he's mostly terrible.

I think his rather odd technique, when it works well, is actually pretty amazing.

i still need to see many of these, but even though i liked naked a lot, i would've voted topsy turvy. i really love that movie. for a while there it seemed like it was on one of the cable movie channels every week or so, and i never got tired of it. i think it's maybe the best movie ever made about creative people creating -- everything about the process seemed deeply understood and felt. so many good performances all the way through the cast. and the period stuff is perfect but unobtrusive, it just completely puts you in that world.

so anyone seen it?

it's terrible. ludicrous.

well

Missed it when it played here for a week

Should've made the effort but "a lesser Topsy-Turvy" was all I heard

I loved it, y'all should watch it. I cried at the end.

Now on Amazon Prime (in the UK at least). I think it's fair to say that Jed's is the majority opinion.

Yeah, I saw the comments.

"a lesser Topsy-Turvy" was all I heard

uh, the tone is rather different....

I could've done with a little less hyperventilating by the villains (that one spitty guy in partic), but he delivered the goods with that climax (never thought I'd see that many extras in a Leigh picture). Also liked the vanity and ego of the Rory Kinnear reform star, and moments like the maid asking "Am I in the picture?" No, you are not.

I can't believe Amazon funded it.

when the two shrews in the doorway yelled "GO 'OME TO YER 'USBANDS!" one can't help but mutter "Trumpists"

i'm sure Amazon will get the National Guard to take care of their packers in a pinch.

one of my top five films of 2019

https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2020/02/01/the-best-films-of-2019/

I agree re: Rory Kinnear's performance/character is a wonderfully drawn and played classic melt poseur arsehole! The aftermath scenes are so hard hitting, it's quite a powerful finish. It really stayed with me did this.

it's terrible. full of people explaining what they are going to do, v. embarrassing exposition. Leigh at his worst when he's allowing the upper classes to be utterly ridiculous (as long as he's imagined/written the text) - I'm sure they were, fwiw. There was one scene that made me laugh out loud where one of the magistrate reads a letter to a maid and she says "oh dear" (or something) then walks offscreen, never to be seen again. She's only in the film to listen to the speech. also, the cgi is utter shit.

lol

you laughed at that scene as well?

no no I'm just startled we disagree so hard

me too man! I'm confused!

when he is good, he is very very good.
But when he is bad he is awful.

I'm not sure his good ones are not awful either, fwiw. Secrets and Lies and Vera Drake have some awful stuff about them. Abigail's Party does but it was written as a play so the too-big-stuff about it is excusable. Some people like Nuts in May, after al and I'll never understand that. Career Girls, same. I know Katrin Cartlidge died tragically young but still.

Didn't notice any bad CG, don't be such a fucking gearhead tosser.

I still own a Career Girls t shirt.

in life, people explain what they are going to do quite often

While okay and great Leigh is hard to distinguish, it's hard to think of awful in the last 20 years. Can you give me, jed, examples of awful writing or direction?

(Not an assignment, just genuinely curious!)

Career Girls and Nuts in May are two films I will never tire of.

when he is good, he is very very good.
But when he is bad he is awful.

Ken Loach

Career Girls and Nuts in May are two films I will never tire of.

Nuts in May is untouchable. I wonder why jed hates it – maybe because it's too broad a caricture too caricatured – but God it doesn't matter in this case. But talking of caricature, CG is bad ML imo.

As for Peterloo, for some reason I'm reminded of Americans liking Match Point. I haven't seen either!

Nuts in May should've had a Brexit remake

lol I can't stand Match Point. Someone should've clubbed Allen to death with a tennis racket.

Match Point is awful.

Can well imagine people disliking Nuts In May tbh. Not me though.

I get why some people don't like Career Girls, it has the conspicuously affective performance ramped up to 11, but it's all-time for me, really captures a place and a time in a unique way, and has so many brilliant moments - I kind of see it as a companion piece to Naked.

I apologise for tarring Alfred and Eric with the Match Point-appreciating brush.

I was reading this thread on my phone and thinking have I gone through some wormhole where Mike Leigh directed the godawful Match Point. Was very relieved after a frantic IMDB check.

Ha ha. Sorry fo polluting the whole thread.

jed otm itt. Watched this last night and it was sortof enjoyable in a deadeyed bbc way with loads of semi-recognisable actors hamming it up but was complete antithesis of everything I like about topsy turvy (its baggy improvisatory feel, its digressary construction).

worst things:
the score! twee and saccharine and overbearing.
maxine peake and her exposition-spouting family (I usually like maxine peake, although I'm starting to get sick of her playing the exact same character and wearing the exact same hat). There are a number of these 2-dimensional 'noble' characters (such as the guardian journalists excitedly founding theguardian.com at the end) prattling on flatly throughout. They sortof appear every now and then, as if Leigh has been reminded that he needs to connect the plot more explicitly to historical context and often results in tritely presented scenes like the egg bartering at the beginning (we do not remain interested in the household accounts of the maxine peakes, this single egg-buying experience is supposed to account for quite a bit here.). The film seems as bored of these characters as I was but prefers to snigger at the hammy 'characters' in a way I found pretty repulsive and boring.
casual mysogyny: unless you are a saintly pragmatic female main character, you are likely to be an imbecile or a shrew. I find this to be the single most damning thing in leigh's films, and doubly weird that he made such a complex film about the politics of abortion (vera drake) considering how frequently his characterisations of women are so hateful. in this one the 'dimwit maid' character really stood out. How can someone insert characters like that and still be considered (a) interested in realism and (b) to be some sort of figurehead of progressivism in britain*?

Its disappointing because the historical events are interesting, and the contemporary resonances many (the spying on progressive movements, the authoritarianism and paranoia of the british ruling class etc) and at the very least the film seems to have somewhat restored the events to more mainstream knowledge in the uk (hopefully somewhat durably).

*don't answer this one

Fascinating, and I couldn't disagree more strongly.

I suspect that some of the things I find most egregious about Leigh might not be so legible if you haven't spent much time in the UK (especially England), although I think his weird women issues would be obvious to an alien.

Just watched Career Girls for the first time, having seen most of his other films. This seem quite poor. The student year scenes I found excruciatingly bad and the mature years were ok - but not just enough chemistry between Hannah and Annie to make it interesting. The 'coincidences' or meeting former college acquaintances just seemed to be mostly a mess (or a miss).

The acting in the "young" scenes in Career Girls must be some of the worst (or most misguided) ever done by talented actors. I literally could not understand why they were talking and gesturing in such contrived ways. 20 years later, I'm no wiser. Was it meant to show how precocious they were? Were the viewers meant to hate the characters as much as I did?

Didn't expect to read Mr. Turner as an idiosyncratic exegesis on creativity, depression and the anguish that runs through them but by the end I was kinda wrecked by it.

Really need a supercut of Spall's variety of grunts - whether as exclamation, criticism, joy, sadness, or all the nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, and conjunctions.