One of the Criterion Channel's newest and most enticing additions is a Mike Leigh collection that includes 11 of the director's films. His is a cinema of compassionate observation that finds beauty in the bleakest settings, the wildest characters, and most complicated psyches. From Thatcher-era social realism to lavish period pieces, passing through farcical character studies, we can find much variety in this director's oeuvre, though some things remain constant. For one, we have Leigh's social preoccupations, a humanistic mindset that bleeds into every aspect of his productions. For another, there's his methodology when working with actors…
Rather than writing complete screenplays and having actors breathe life into his words, Mike Leigh develops his narratives alongside the performers. During extensive rehearsals and workshops, the director builds the characters with the actors, often creating vast histories that are never put onscreen. From there, he devises situations and storylines, entire scenarios that are born out of the characters rather than merely populated by them. This level of trust in his actors produces remarkable performances. However, they are not examples of naturalistic acting, unlike what many Leigh's fans are prone to say.
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The acting-style of these films is often more real than real, fidgety, mannered, unafraid of being grotesque, or of falling into the depths of absurdity. It's an approach that results in portraits painted with bold colors and broad strokes, ugly things that nonetheless dazzle us with their candid rawness. The films that are home to such actorly feats can be as erratic as them, always fearless but sometimes going too far. For instance, 1983's Meantime is a tad unfocused despite its tremendous snapshot of class struggle. As for 1997's Career Girls, the picture may be touching but it also loses political fervor among its twitching eccentricities.
Still, even when they fail, Mike Leigh's films are fascinating objects and certainly worth a watch. Based on the eleven titles available on the Criterion Channel, here are some more specific recommendations:
HIGH HOPES (1988)
Leigh's first feature made for the big screen is an astringent cocktail of contrasting tones and conflicting politics. Focusing primarily on a working-class couple with socialistic ideals, High Hopes weaves a mesmerizing tapestry of farce and heartbreak. What's most marvelous about the film is that, no matter how miserable it can get, there's always a ray of hope shining from above, a miracle of human kindness that can be as important as the most high-minded of revolutions. Ruth Sheen and Edna Doré won awards for their performances, but Phil Davis is equally deserving of praise, as is Lesley Manville sinking her teeth into a shameless caricature of posh elitism.
NAKED (1993)
Naked starts with rape and never gets any lighter or less unnerving. This is Leigh at his most merciless, constructing a painful document on sex-obsessed men who spend their lives tormenting the women while feeling alienated from everything and everyone. It's a bracing tale about the darkest sides of the human soul and an odyssey of nighttime London that is nonetheless able to find wonder in the specificities of personhood. As the despicable main character, David Thewlis delivers the performance of a lifetime, but the supporting cast is almost as great, with Lesley Sharpe, Katrin Cartlidge, and Deborah MacLaren offering startlingly different shades of devastation. The final scene is an ending for the ages.
SECRETS & LIES (1996)
Winner of the Palme d'Or and nominated for five Oscars, including Best Picture, Secrets & Lies is Mike Leigh's most celebrated film. It's also one of his most accessible creations, using the model of family melodrama to conjure a haunting vision of the ties of affection and blood, of deception and devotion, of race and class, that bring people together and also draw them apart. Brenda Blethyn's volcanic performance might be the flick's most commonly praised element, but I'd argue Marianne Jean-Baptiste is the feature's MVP. Timothy Spall's take on despondency made flesh and Lesley Manville's tired professionalism rank as close seconds. All in all, this is one of those films that is essential viewing for anyone who claims to love acting. For anyone who claims to love cinema, for that matter.
VERA DRAKE (2004)
The director's methods rarely produced a more striking object than Vera Drake. After taking the leap into the minutia of period recreation with the Victorian-set Topsy-Turvy, Mike Leigh returned to the historical past for this Academy-Award nominated feature. The matter of abortion in post-war England was the focus and it results in one of the director's most blatantly political works. It's also one of his best-acted films, in no small part because crucial details of the plot were kept hidden from most of the actors. This resulted in a lived-in domestic milieu whose disruption at the end of the film hits with seismic intensity, most of the actors sharing in their character's impotent shock. Imelda Staunton was the only one who knew everything and she is perfect in the titular role. She'll break your heart.
ANOTHER YEAR (2010)
Themes of mortality are particularly dear to my heart and Another Year is positively obsessed with them. Structured by the year's seasons and centered on aging characters, this is a story ostensibly about the passage of time, about amounting regrets, and the crushing toll of accumulated pain. As generous as it is sharp, Another Year is the sort of film that seduces you with easy laughter and then stabs you with a blade made of synthesized despair. Lesley Manville's performance is as showboating as her character, but the way she crumbles before our eyes when winter comes is a spectacle of human misery that's been seldomly matched and almost never surpassed.
What's your favorite Mike Leigh film? Curiously enough, neither of my best-loved works from this director are available on the Criterion Channel. They are the behind-the-scenes theatre comedy Topsy-Turvy, which you can find on Hoopla, and the impressionistic biopic Mr. Turner, available to rent from Amazon, Google Play, and others.