Mike Leigh and His Affinity for Writing Brilliant Female Characters

By Matt Mazur

The director of Happy-Go-Lucky tells PopMatters: “…Each of us is the center of his or her universe. Everybody is as valid as everybody else.” [18 February 2009]

Talk, Talk, Talk: October 2008

By Bill Gibron

What studio suit thought this was a good idea? With four months to schedule your high priced efforts, you instead unload almost 30 overpriced pictures on an unsuspecting movie audience. [10 September 2008]

No Girl So Sweet and ‘Happy-Go-Lucky’

By Matt Mazur

At first fearing a British Amelie, Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go-Lucky surprisingly became Mazur’s favorite film of 2008. [26 January 2009]

(more Suffragette City)

Irrational Exuberance

By Chris Barsanti

Watching Mike Leigh’s sublimely fresh Happy-Go-Lucky, you could be forgiven for wondering what the rest of humanity is so depressed about, anyway. [10 October 2008]

(more The Screener)

Katrin Cartlidge: The Working Actress

By Matt Mazur

Whether it was through silence, grotesquerie, fury or intelligence (or, at times, lack of intelligence), Cartlidge was not afraid to upturn the dark corners of the women she portrayed. [29 August 2008]

(more Suffragette City)

High Hopes

By Emma Simmonds

Leigh takes on ordinary and infuses blinding colour, broad comedy, crude monikers and flamboyant performances. [6 July 2009]

Naked (1993)

By Cynthia Fuchs

A hard movie, in the sense that it's difficult and also harsh, Naked is unsettling, often extremely funny and sometimes bizarrely brilliant. [30 November 2005]

Vera Drake (2004)

By Cynthia Fuchs

The war has disturbed all of their lives intensely, and if they don't quite have the words to express their trauma, they do have a sense of shared experience. [22 October 2004]

Topsy Turvy (1999)

By Josh Jones

Short Ends and Leader: Leigh’s Artistry Accents this ‘Happy-Go-Lucky’ Lark