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Johnny flees Manchester for London, to avoid a beating from the family of a girl he has raped. There he finds an old girlfriend, and spends some time homeless, spending much of his time ... See full summary »
Director:
Mike Leigh
Stars:
David Thewlis,
Lesley Sharp,
Katrin Cartlidge
Penny's love for her partner, taxi-driver Phil, has run dry. He is a gentle, philosophical guy, and she works on the checkout at a supermarket. Their daughter Rachel cleans in a home for ... See full summary »
Just north of London live Wendy, Andy, and their twenty-something twins, Natalie and Nicola. Wendy clerks in a shop, leads aerobics at a primary school, jokes like a vaudevillian, agrees to... See full summary »
Director:
Mike Leigh
Stars:
Alison Steadman,
Jim Broadbent,
Claire Skinner
Based on the true childhood experiences of Noah Baumbach and his brother, The Squid and the Whale tells the touching story of two young boys dealing with their parents' divorce in Brooklyn in the 1980s.
When his only friend dies, a man born with dwarfism moves to rural New Jersey to live a life of solitude, only to meet a chatty hot dog vendor and a woman dealing with her own personal loss.
Director:
Thomas McCarthy
Stars:
Peter Dinklage,
Paul Benjamin,
Bobby Cannavale
Cynthia lives in London with her sullen street-sweeper daughter. Her brother has been successful with his photographer's business and now lives nearby in a more upmarket house. But Cynthia hasn't even been invited round there after a year. So, all round, she feels rather lonely and isolated. Meanwhile, in another part of town, Hortense, adopted at birth but now grown up, starts to try and trace her mother. Written by
Jeremy Perkins {J-26}
Roxanne drives her mother crazy. Maurice never speaks to his niece. Cynthia has a shock for her family. Monica can't talk to her husband. Hortense has never met her mother.
Most of the script was improvised. Writer/director Mike Leigh told each of the actors what his/her part in the story was and they each developed their own characters. See more »
Goofs
When Roxanne pushes Cynthia onto the bed, the shadow of a crew member's head is seen moving on the bed. See more »
Quotes
Maurice:
Secrets and lies! We're all in pain! Why can't we share our pain? I've spent my entire life trying to make people happy, and the three people I love the most in the world hate each other's guts, and I'm in the middle! I can't take it anymore!
See more »
I've only seen a few Mike Leigh films. FOUR DAYS IN JULY(I think that was the title) was a film I would have liked except back when I saw it, I wasn't able to handle thick accents, so I couldn't understand it. LIFE IS SWEET and CAREER GIRLS are slight but highly enjoyable. NAKED features a terrific performance by David Thewlis but has a surprisingly misogynist streak in it. But the best of all of them is SECRETS AND LIES. Like his other films, it's entirely improvised by the actors from an outline Leigh writes, but unlike some of those types of movies, you're never left saying, "Okay, cut already!" You're too engrossed by the story, the emotions it brings up, and the performances. Particularly those of Blethyn, Jean-Baptiste(especially her first scene in the adoption agency), and Spall. I could identify with all of them, and was caught up in what happened to them. And although there's no neat resolution, there is some hope at the end. A great movie.
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I've only seen a few Mike Leigh films. FOUR DAYS IN JULY(I think that was the title) was a film I would have liked except back when I saw it, I wasn't able to handle thick accents, so I couldn't understand it. LIFE IS SWEET and CAREER GIRLS are slight but highly enjoyable. NAKED features a terrific performance by David Thewlis but has a surprisingly misogynist streak in it. But the best of all of them is SECRETS AND LIES. Like his other films, it's entirely improvised by the actors from an outline Leigh writes, but unlike some of those types of movies, you're never left saying, "Okay, cut already!" You're too engrossed by the story, the emotions it brings up, and the performances. Particularly those of Blethyn, Jean-Baptiste(especially her first scene in the adoption agency), and Spall. I could identify with all of them, and was caught up in what happened to them. And although there's no neat resolution, there is some hope at the end. A great movie.