Another Year (2010)

Another year and it's another Mike Leigh film. Just when I think the man canot surprise me anymore, he comes up with another wonderful gem. Decidedly less saccharine-filled than Happy-Go-Lucky (2008), Another Year boasts a troupe of Leigh regulars, who play regular folk, talking regular-folk stuff, doing what regular folks do. Sounds boring, right? In someone else's hands, this would have turned out to be a exactly that, but in Leigh's hands it feels wonderful and just staged enough to get over its presumed similarity to real life.

Retro Review: Dead Man's Shoes (2004)

I tend not to hide my admiration for Shane Meadows. As far as the pseudo-indie (or pseudo-studio, depending on your point of view) British filmmakers go, his films tend to get overlooked. Danny Boyle (deservedly) gets the mainstream vote, Mike Leigh (deservedly) gets the critical vote, and Ken Loach (deservedly) gets the political vote. Shane Meadows' films sort of occupy the middle of this triangle - they are accessible enough to be mainstream, masterly filmed to be critic favourites, and tend to carry enough political subtext to make you raise your fist against the injustices of the world. Perhaps none of his films capture this as well as Dead Man's Shoes.

Happy-Go-Lucky (2008)

Mike Leigh's latest is a demanding experience - it demands from its audience to shed every movie-watching instinct it has developed over countless amounts of dull films and take this film, which is completely devoid of any irony, to heart. Happy-Go-Lucky is just that - a film stripped off any expected maneuverings  in the plot department and just goes on its way with the freest of spirits.

The film is a magnificent triumph of acting and film-making. Sally Hawkins' Poppy is an infectious character. Her incredibly optimistic point-of-view of everything, surprisingly, manages to be anything but jarring. Leigh conjures up situations that test Poppy's worldview, but they never succumb to petty tragedy, gratuitous violence, or self-sacrifice. Poppy remains unchanged and unfazed after what happens to her - especially at the finale - but her attitude is actually given an extra momentum. We know by the end of it she will keep on living her life the way she wants to. And along the way she will embrace what adulthood will bring: relationships, children, sickness, and death.

I can't find enough superlatives to praise this film.