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.
― Anatomy of a Morbius (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 7 August 2009 13:40 (fourteen years ago) link
I think the same could be said of Thewlis' role in Naked.
― EZ Snappin, Friday, 7 August 2009 13:45 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― Ludo, Friday, 7 August 2009 13:50 (fourteen years ago) link
"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.
― Alex in SF, Friday, 7 August 2009 14:00 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― Indiana Morbs and the Curse of the Ivy League Chorister (Dr Morbius), Friday, 7 August 2009 14:07 (fourteen years ago) link
I got it from Wikipedia!
Naked was made for you, Morbs. What's HSH?
― Anatomy of a Morbius (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 7 August 2009 14:12 (fourteen years ago) link
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...
― Oz, Friday, 7 August 2009 14:15 (fourteen years ago) link
HSH = Home Sweet Home. Tim Spall plays a stupendously dense mailman. obv Wiki took it from iMdb.
― Indiana Morbs and the Curse of the Ivy League Chorister (Dr Morbius), Friday, 7 August 2009 14:17 (fourteen years ago) link
yes, Johnny wd've been SB'd.
― Indiana Morbs and the Curse of the Ivy League Chorister (Dr Morbius), Friday, 7 August 2009 14:18 (fourteen years ago) link
xxp uh pretty sure Phil Daniels had big roles prior to 1983 or 1981 (whichever Meantime actually came out in.)
― Alex in SF, Friday, 7 August 2009 14:26 (fourteen years ago) link
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).
― Michael Jones, Friday, 7 August 2009 14:27 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― Michael Jones, Friday, 7 August 2009 14:30 (fourteen years ago) link
yes, Wiki sucks.
― Indiana Morbs and the Curse of the Ivy League Chorister (Dr Morbius), Friday, 7 August 2009 14:32 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― Tuomas, Friday, 7 August 2009 14:51 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― AND I KNOW THE NEIGHBORS HATE ME NOW (Noodle Vague), Friday, 7 August 2009 14:55 (fourteen years ago) link
I do love
― Number None, Friday, 7 August 2009 15:01 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― Number None, Friday, 7 August 2009 15:02 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― bham, Friday, 7 August 2009 15:17 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― Bob Six, Friday, 7 August 2009 17:54 (fourteen years ago) link
I posted a few herehere.
― Anatomy of a Morbius (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 7 August 2009 17:57 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― scott seward, Friday, 7 August 2009 17:57 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― Michael Jones, Friday, 7 August 2009 18:06 (fourteen years ago) link
re-poll
― Indiana Morbs and the Curse of the Ivy League Chorister (Dr Morbius), Friday, 7 August 2009 18:10 (fourteen years ago) link
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a82/bobbysixer/cheerupmate.jpg
― Bob Six, Friday, 7 August 2009 18:15 (fourteen years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Tuesday, 18 August 2009 23:01 (fourteen years ago) link
Super hard to choose. Voted Life Is Sweet for partly sentimental reasons (it was my first Mike Leigh).
Also, RIP Katrin Cartlidge ;_;
― discovery witch has "provide you are reciptives" (Jon Lewis), Tuesday, 18 August 2009 23:09 (fourteen years ago) link
Lots of good choices here, but I can think of few theatrical experiences equal to the first time I saw "Topsy-Turvy." Utterly enthralled.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 18 August 2009 23:28 (fourteen years ago) link
little-known fact: I own a Career Girls t shirt
― Indiana Morbs and the Curse of the Ivy League Chorister (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 19 August 2009 00:42 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― Jeff LeVine, Wednesday, 19 August 2009 05:52 (fourteen years ago) link
"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.
― Virginia Plain, Wednesday, 19 August 2009 18:41 (fourteen years ago) link
Abigail's Party
everyone, just say what you think
― Milton Parker, Wednesday, 19 August 2009 19:10 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― kill puppies when the kicking stops (Nicole), Wednesday, 19 August 2009 19:43 (fourteen years ago) link
Don't know much Leigh but for me, 'Topsy Turvy' just beats out 'Naked', as fond as I am of that film.
― repeating cycles of smoking and cruelty (Michael White), Wednesday, 19 August 2009 19:53 (fourteen years ago) link
Err... Nut in May I guess. Don't like this guy's output tbh. Naked is such a stupid, stupid film.
― DavidM, Wednesday, 19 August 2009 19:58 (fourteen years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Wednesday, 19 August 2009 23:01 (fourteen years ago) link
yay bitter nihilist antihero!
― Indiana Morbs and the Curse of the Ivy League Chorister (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 19 August 2009 23:18 (fourteen years ago) link
topsy turvy is amazing. missed this poll.
― goole, Wednesday, 19 August 2009 23:21 (fourteen years ago) link
Tsk emos.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x55y5q_nuts-in-may-part-1-of-5_shortfilms
― Someone left the cape out in the rain (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 23 August 2009 09:48 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― Tuomas, Sunday, 23 August 2009 09:59 (fourteen years ago) link
Finally saw 'Happy-Go-Lucky'. Amazing performances. Still trying to figure out what I thought of it.
― l'homme moderne: il forniquait et lisait des journaux (Michael White), Monday, 28 September 2009 20:40 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― Tuomas, Monday, 28 September 2009 21:11 (fourteen years ago) link
Be sure to report back when you've figured it out.
(x-post)
― Bob Six, Monday, 28 September 2009 22:21 (fourteen years ago) link
would have voted 'nuts in may'. there are quite a few other tv films missing from the poll.
i think he's mostly terrible.
― history mayne, Monday, 28 September 2009 22:26 (fourteen years ago) link
I think his rather odd technique, when it works well, is actually pretty amazing.
― l'homme moderne: il forniquait et lisait des journaux (Michael White), Monday, 28 September 2009 22:43 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― flying squid attack (tipsy mothra), Monday, 28 September 2009 23:00 (fourteen years ago) link
t-dawg idk how u feel about this but when i was watching this it was pretty much exact like how i picture your lyfe just less fighting for the rights of ppl on internet msg boards. also that driving instructor is how i picture ilx poster whiney g weingarten right down to assaulting attractive dark haired yung women
um that sd dope movie ~~ chilling on the balcony wearnin t shirts and underwear just u no glowing and shit ~~ thats real lyfe
― nutrional socialist (Lamp), Thursday, 1 October 2009 03:30 (fourteen years ago) link
watched happy go lucky last night - really enjoyed it and <3 mike leigh generally - ws all this wite girls def
i personally related to how poppys frustration w/the world manifested as passive aggressive discursive joking - its trying to make people relax and be natural w/o recognizing that this desire has control freak roots of its own
so yeah she was an optimist who believes in the goodness of people - and she was pretty good at connecting when shit got real - but she was also quite willfully personally unexamined - there was a whole lot of ignorance and projection going on
wouldve voted secrets and lies btw - the climatic scene is so raw - shows the cathartic power of the truth
― ice cr?m, Saturday, 17 October 2009 17:56 (fourteen years ago) link
How did I miss this poll? Would probably have voted Secrets and Lies, too. I have a lot of affection for Life Is Sweet, too, and even Career Girls, which few people seem to like.
― M. Grissom/DeShields (jaymc), Saturday, 17 October 2009 18:15 (fourteen years ago) link
we can do another one next year that actually has all his films on it.
― Your Favorite Saturday Night Thing (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 17 October 2009 20:52 (fourteen years ago) link
Wish I caught this poll before - I really love Leigh's films. I missed an opportunity to catch a lot of his shorts at a film fest about 10 years ago. I haven't seen them on dvd.Torn between several of his films. Life is Sweet has been a go to recommend because it's the first I'd seen. But Naked and the performance by Thewlis are amazing. And Eddy Marsan's Scott the driving instructor is equally amazing. Great, great stuff...
― sknybrg, Sunday, 18 October 2009 04:08 (fourteen years ago) link
I loved it, y'all should watch it. I cried at the end.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 12 July 2019 12:35 (four years ago) link
Now on Amazon Prime (in the UK at least). I think it's fair to say that Jed's is the majority opinion.
― Ward Fowler, Friday, 12 July 2019 12:37 (four years ago) link
Yeah, I saw the comments.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 12 July 2019 12:40 (four years ago) link
"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.
― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Monday, 30 March 2020 00:04 (three years ago) link
I can't believe Amazon funded it.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 30 March 2020 00:17 (three years ago) link
when the two shrews in the doorway yelled "GO 'OME TO YER 'USBANDS!" one can't help but mutter "Trumpists"
― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Monday, 30 March 2020 00:25 (three years ago) link
i'm sure Amazon will get the National Guard to take care of their packers in a pinch.
― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Monday, 30 March 2020 00:28 (three years ago) link
one of my top five films of 2019
https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2020/02/01/the-best-films-of-2019/
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 30 March 2020 00:29 (three years ago) link
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.
― calzino, Monday, 30 March 2020 00:34 (three years ago) link
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.
― current (jed_), Monday, 30 March 2020 02:23 (three years ago) link
lol
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 30 March 2020 02:35 (three years ago) link
you laughed at that scene as well?
― current (jed_), Monday, 30 March 2020 02:41 (three years ago) link
no no I'm just startled we disagree so hard
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 30 March 2020 02:42 (three years ago) link
me too man! I'm confused!
― current (jed_), Monday, 30 March 2020 02:44 (three years ago) link
when he is good, he is very very good. But when he is bad he is awful.
― current (jed_), Monday, 30 March 2020 02:47 (three years ago) link
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.
― current (jed_), Monday, 30 March 2020 03:02 (three years ago) link
Didn't notice any bad CG, don't be such a fucking gearhead tosser.
I still own a Career Girls t shirt.
― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Monday, 30 March 2020 03:05 (three years ago) link
in life, people explain what they are going to do quite often
― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Monday, 30 March 2020 03:06 (three years ago) link
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!)
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 30 March 2020 03:35 (three years ago) link
Career Girls and Nuts in May are two films I will never tire of.
― Wuhan!! Got You All in Check (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Monday, 30 March 2020 06:43 (three years ago) link
when he is good, he is very very good.But when he is bad he is awful.
Ken Loach
― Vegemite Is My Grrl (Eric H.), Monday, 30 March 2020 12:51 (three years ago) link
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!
― Alba, Monday, 30 March 2020 13:43 (three years ago) link
Nuts in May should've had a Brexit remake
― Let's kill the Queen and be legends (Noodle Vague), Monday, 30 March 2020 13:59 (three years ago) link
lol I can't stand Match Point. Someone should've clubbed Allen to death with a tennis racket.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 30 March 2020 13:59 (three years ago) link
Match Point is awful.
― Vegemite Is My Grrl (Eric H.), Monday, 30 March 2020 14:00 (three years ago) link
Can well imagine people disliking Nuts In May tbh. Not me though.
― Bridge Over Thorley Waters (Tom D.), Monday, 30 March 2020 14:02 (three years ago) link
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.
― Wuhan!! Got You All in Check (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Monday, 30 March 2020 14:03 (three years ago) link
I apologise for tarring Alfred and Eric with the Match Point-appreciating brush.
― Alba, Monday, 30 March 2020 14:34 (three years ago) link
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.
― calzino, Monday, 30 March 2020 14:48 (three years ago) link
Ha ha. Sorry fo polluting the whole thread.
― Alba, Monday, 30 March 2020 14:59 (three years ago) link
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
― plax (ico), Wednesday, 28 October 2020 09:52 (three years ago) link
Fascinating, and I couldn't disagree more strongly.
― Patriotic Goiter (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 28 October 2020 12:25 (three years ago) link
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.
― plax (ico), Wednesday, 28 October 2020 18:45 (three years ago) link
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).
― Luna Schlosser, Saturday, 31 October 2020 23:44 (three years ago) link
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?
― Halfway there but for you, Sunday, 1 November 2020 02:34 (three years ago) link
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.
― Elvis Telecom, Tuesday, 23 August 2022 02:08 (one year ago) link