Mike Leigh

Latest Articles

Review: Another Year

Mike Leigh's new film bristles with anxiety and loneliness.
It joins a list of English films that do not make me want to visit England. Maybe because it's too much like here.
By A.S. HAMRAH | February 24, 2011

2011 film preview: 25 films Mike Leigh didn't direct (plus one that he did)

The movies chill out to start the year
So, it's time for Another Year , meaning not just 2011 but also the latest film from Happy-Go-Lucky director Mike Leigh, a traipse through four seasons in the lives of ordinary people, exploring their small joys and tragedies. Kind of like Blue Valentine , but with no oral sex.
By PETER KEOUGH | December 29, 2010

Review: Looking for Eric

Goal keeper: Ken Loach scores
Like Eric (Steve Evets), the depressive Manchester postman in his new film, Ken Loach, the doyen of British neo-realism, deserves a break.
By PETER KEOUGH | May 19, 2010

Pleasure principles

In happiness begins responsibility
Willard Spiegelman seems like a nice guy. He has had the good luck to live a happy life without major disaster or suffering. But as a long-time professor of English at Southern Methodist University and editor of the Southwest Review , he has ended up living his life among just those people — writers and academics.
By CHARLES TAYLOR | December 02, 2009

Man make movie

Ramin Bahrani observes and reports
Poverty is making a comeback, on the streets and on movie screens.
By PETER KEOUGH | April 07, 2009

Year in Film: Risky business

Films whose aspirations are more than Academic
Every year the studios hold back their best until the end of the year, but this year they let us down.
By PETER KEOUGH | December 24, 2008

Candide camera

Mike Leigh lightens up in Happy-Go-Lucky
There might be a dark side to Poppy (Sally Hawkins), the driving force behind Mike Leigh’s new film Happy-Go-Lucky , but damned if I could find it.
By PETER KEOUGH | January 12, 2009

Cheese Danish

Hamlet variations we'd like to see
Hamlet variations we'd like to see
By PETER KEOUGH | August 19, 2008

The odd couple

Revisit one of the great films about the artistic process
British director Mike Leigh is known as a master of kitchen-sink realism, making films about family and relationship conflict weighed down by the demands of contemporary working-class existence.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | February 13, 2008

Hairy Potter

Hormones submit to dreary Order
Whatever else it may be, the Harry Potter Edda is surely the most popular narrative about the dawning of pubertal awareness ever created.
By MICHAEL ATKINSON | July 10, 2007

Confetti

An improv success
British theater veteran Debbie Isitt’s mock-documentary follows three couples in the title bridal magazine’s contest for the “Most Original Wedding of the Year,” the prize being a million-dollar dream home . Watch the trailer for Confetti (QuickTime)
By BRETT MICHEL | September 20, 2006

Czech imbalances

‘Rare Bohemian Cinema’ at the MFA
Just about everyone who survived the time with memory intact waxes nostalgic about the ’60s, but perhaps none more so than Czechs.
By PETER KEOUGH | August 23, 2006

Seven heaven

Readers speak out on the best directors
Who are the world’s greatest living narrative filmmakers, what I call the Magnificent Seven?
By GERALD PEARY | April 28, 2006