Life is Sweet – 1990 Leigh

Mike Leigh has his own voice, world and characters not unlike Fellini, Bergman or Woody Allen – his is the blue collar (Broadbent sporting a can of beer in the first 5 minutes and you get the idea that Leigh prefers “Mike” to “Michael” for this reason) middle-lower class in Britain, family dramas, a talented stable of actors, catchy scores, and the semi-ironic titles

These characters are grasping at straws
The ensemble includes Jim Broadbent, Stephen Rea, Timothy Spall, David Thewlis—really impressive
The can of beer, there are people playing pool at a pub in almost every Leigh film
Like the rest of his work there’s a twitchy, squeaky-voiced woman – here Jane Horrocks plays Nicola—politics in Leigh’s film. She calls her sister a capitalist, mom a fascist. She’s wearing a Smiths shirt, she’s clearly depressed and bulimic
Leigh is a realist. His characters, settings are authentic. Here the dialect—the family telling each other to shut up. The film is plotless
The Rachel Portman score is simple, catchy, touches of sweetness like a Chaplin or Tati film/comedy
Ebert says Leigh is 3 for 3 making of the best films of the year- he’s talking about this, 1988’s High Hopes and Bleak Moments (which I haven’t seen)
Leigh is an auteur- but one of rich characters and writing. There’s not really an interesting shot in the entire film save for the duel portrait ending with the two sisters and that earned hint of optimistic for their future together poetically saying almost “it’s all gonna be ok”