Hard Truths

AroView: Mike Leigh’s latest has a title that could well sum up the director’s 53-year film career, and here he reunites with Marianne Jean-Baptiste from ‘Secrets and Lies’ who together build a character study you won’t soon forget.

She plays an intolerant, intolerable woman whom only her family have any tolerance for, and even then, you might wonder why. The bitterness is offset by an otherwise very sweet portrait of middle-class Black lives in contemporary London that, in true Leigh style, is full of memorable moments that will make you unsure whether to laugh or cry, yet by the film’s end you are very likely to have done both.

“Leigh’s strategy of taking us into his characters’ world without prelude or explanation, letting the revelations and backstory waft out, help make his films feel authentic.” ~Caryn James, BBC

“You believe this woman exists. And Leigh and Jean-Baptiste ensure she will haunt you.” ~Gregory Ellwood, The Playlist

“A horribly sad and sometimes hilariously funny portrait of the most unpleasant sourpuss woman in the history of cinema.” ~John Waters (Film Director)