Mike Leigh Movie Recommendations

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Let me know if you liked or hated a movie I recommended. - . Leigh's films are whimsical or neurotic; they are tough-love examinations of British life: funny, outlandish, and biting.

I get all the Mike Leigh films. They can be hard to take but they tend to be a slice of real life and the acting is always wonderful. These characters seem part of the family. I agree 100% with Bret Fetzer's review. Its an eye-opener if you haven't seen how few options and how miserable life is for many people. But no matter what your station in life, there is much you can do to improve or worsen it. Watch with which is not nearly as miserable (or maybe Leigh was just younger). :
Writer-director Mike Leigh, after a brief detour into the period drama of Topsy-Turvy, returns to the lives of contemporary working-class Brits. Phil (longtime Leigh collaborator Timothy Spall, Secrets and Lies) is a quiet taxi driver whose marriage to Penny (Lesley Manville) has gone dry, though neither has quite realized it. They bicker with each other and their children and try to find some pleasure in going out with friends, but their friends have their own struggles--even Penny's coworker Maureen (Ruth Sheen), whose naturally buoyant personality is colliding with her resentful daughter's pregnancy. All or Nothing is among Leigh's bleakest films; the relentless misery of these characters' lives is hard to take. But thanks to the incredibly committed acting, when moments of tenderness come, they have a devastating impact.

funny, warm, gritty, human. Watch it with . Stars Jim Broadbent, Alison Steadman, and Timothy Spall

intimate portrait of Gilbert and Sullivan. The music was wonderful. Focus on their opera, The Mikado.

reunion of two women friends from university days who try hard, although awkwardly, to rediscover their early closeness.

Secrets and Lies involves Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), an elegant black woman wanting to learn her birth mother's identity. She will find it's Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn), who is one of the saddest creatures we've seen in film. She's also one of the most real and, ultimately, one of the most lovable.

this one is too violent and ugly for me.

funny, warm, gritty, human. Staring Jim Broadbent, Alison Steadman, and Timothy Spall

two pregnant women from each community in Belfast. As their due date approaches so does the twelfth of July. As the temperature rises, so does the tension and the laughter.

introduced both Gary Oldman and Tim Roth. Set in the Thatcher era, the story revolves around a middle-class family whose male members are all on the government dole

brilliant satire of the British cultural obsession with hereditary titles and social status

also very funny

one of the funnier movies I have seen

a lonesome officeworker (Raitt) who looks after her mentally retarded sister and hopes that her relationship with a schoolteacher will lead to marriage.