Great film
Mike Leigh is incredible. Good early roles for Tim Roth and Gary Oldman, and Phil Daniels is great as usual. Wonderfully written with great characters and a great cast. It's a shame this movie isn't more widely known.
shareI agree, Leigh's films are a delight - so realistic and so dry. Meantime needs to be seen by more people as do most of his films.
share[deleted]
so good to hear others like it too.
i'm not sure what it is about this film that makes it my number 1 probably.
of course there's the great great acting, which you get in all of Leighs films.
and great script too.
but i think that there's this mystical quality to the setting.
the mundane suburbia, the tower blocks...and that incredible pause on Tim Roth in the last scene, his parents and brother arguing in the kitchen while the sun glows through his bedroom window.
i really dont know what makes it, but there's so much i get from Leighs films that i find nearly impossible to explain, or even grasp.
IMDb's year should say 1983, not 1984. My favourite Leigh film, and one of Roth's best performances ever, he's truly amazing and complicated here. It almost seems effortless, but I'm sure it was a very difficult role.
share[deleted]
If you like clear spoon fed plots. Plots with neon lights shining over them, then you really should avoid Mike Leigh films. I loved this film because it was a great portrayal of London in the mid 80's and to a certain extent, is still more than relevant now.
Admitedly, there some in jokes with regards to life on a council estate, at the time. Like when Frank goes down to the report his window broken. The chap they send up to look at it is priceless (the worst sort of philosophising middle class liberal) and I was cracking up at the bit when they they asked him when someone would be coming around to fix it (Soon. Very Soon. Tonight, tomorrow....who knows?). That is exactly what it was like.
The stuff with Auntie Barbara should not be overlooked either. They had there nice house out in Chigwell but right at the end, you find out that all is not well with them either. And why was that?.
For me, this was anything but boring.
I think the film was made in 1983 but released in 84 on British television.
Barbara, for me was the star of this piece of art. A very subtle depression & loneliness was lurking underneath that confident exterior, not forgetting she also had the funniest lines!
'I don't much care for your boss & his fat wife either..'
There is no help but self help...
Running water never flows stale...
[deleted]