Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Mike Leigh Stars: Rory Kinnear, Maxine Peake, David Moorst, Pearce Quigley, Robert Wilfort, Karl Johnson, Alistair Mackenzie. Set in Manchester in 1819, after the Napoleonic Wars, this epic film tells of the infamous Peterloo massacre, a shameful but defining moment in British history about which little is known. A massed crowd of some 60,000 people who had gathered in St Peter’s Field to peacefully to protest, and to demand political reform and relief for increased poverty and unemployment. The crowd had also gathered to hear …
MR TURNER
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Mike Leigh Stars: Timothy Spall, Paul Jesson, Dorothy Atkinson, Marion Bailey, Ruth Sheen, Lesley Manville, Martin Savage, Richard Bremmer, Niall Buggy, Edward De Souza, James Fleet, Joshua McGuire, Fenella Woolgar. John Mallord William Turner was a famous 19th century landscape artist renowned for his paintings of seascapes and shipwrecks, and a key figure in the so-called Romantic Movement. But this portrait of the artist comes from acclaimed British director Mike Leigh, who is best known for his bleak dramas, and rather than follow …
ANOTHER YEAR
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Mike Leigh Stars: Jim Broadbent, Ruth Sheen, Lesley Manville, Peter Wright, Oliver Maltman. The painful lives of others? The new film from Mike Leigh is a lowkey affair that explores twelve months in the life of comfortably married couple Tom and Gerri (Leigh veterans Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen). They have well-developed careers - he is a geologist, and she is a counsellor at a local clinic- a comfortable life and a warm loving home they are happy to share. They are a happy couple, content with their lot in life, and still …
VERA DRAKE
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Mike Leigh Stars: Imelda Staunton, Phil Drake, Peter Wright, Heather Craney, Adrian Scarborough, Daniel Mays, Alex Kelly, Sally Hawkins, Eddie Marsan, Ruth Sheen. Mike Leigh returns to the socially realistic dramas with which he is synonymous with Vera Drake, a bleak and emotionally devastating drama about abortion, that is also one of his best films for quite some time. Set in the austere post-war period of 1950's London, the film centres around the diminutive Vera Drake (Imelda Staunton), a kindly and bustling cleaning lady …