Synopsis
A look at a few chapters in the life of Poppy, a cheery, colorful, North London schoolteacher whose optimism tends to exasperate those around her.
2008 Directed by Mike Leigh
A look at a few chapters in the life of Poppy, a cheery, colorful, North London schoolteacher whose optimism tends to exasperate those around her.
Sally Hawkins Eddie Marsan Alexis Zegerman Sylvestra Le Touzel Stanley Townsend Kate O'Flynn Caroline Martin Oliver Maltman Sarah Niles Samuel Roukin Karina Fernandez Nonso Anozie Sinead Matthews Andrea Riseborough Elliot Cowan Joseph Kloska Anna Reynolds Trevor Cooper Philip Arditti Viss Elliot Safavi Rebekah Staton Jack MacGeachin Charlie Duffield Ayotunde Williams
Thin Man Films Film4 Productions Special Treats Productions Summit Entertainment UK Film Council Miramax Ingenious Media
Be Happy, Happy-Go-Lucky, czyli co nas uszczesliwia, La felicidad trae suerte, La dulce vida, Tyheri ki eftyhismeni, Simplesmente Feliz, Happy-go-lucky: Gute Laune ist ansteckend!, Daima mutlu, Hajrá boldogság!, Беззаботная, Hajrá, boldogság!, Samo bez brige, Um Dia de Cada Vez, Happy Go Lucky: La felicità porta fortuna, Happy, un cuento sobre la felicidad, 해피 고 럭키, Happy: un conte sobre la felicitat, חופשיה ומאושרת, La felicità porta fortuna - Happy Go Lucky, ハッピー・ゴー・ラッキー, Vėjavaikė, Happy-Go-Lucky, czyli co nas uszczęśliwia, ป๊อบปี้...เธอสุขไม่มีสุด, Daima Mutlu, Безтурботна, 无忧无虑, 快樂小小姐, 無憂無慮
Sally Hawkins' performance rates with Toshiro Mifune's best in that she uses her whole body. Unlike Mifune, who is animalistic, Hawkins is squishy. Her face squishes. Her body squishes. Her movements are bubbly. She takes being bright and happy and renders it not merely tolerable but endearing by being aware of it in every movement (and in dialogue). I admit, I have a tiny crush.
perhaps nothing will put me more at ease about turning 30 than our greatest testament to the power of compassion? I spent a lot of time thinking about how my college advisor - who, for the record, had a very similar vibe to Poppy - preached the importance of what she called "active gratitude." platitudinal language aside... I simp harder for Leigh when he's doing his contemporary humanist dramedies than the period pieces, Hawkins a joy, Zegerman a joy, good for Eddie Marsan, if Andrea Riseborough was in this movie, I am a victim of Andrea Riseborough face blindness. teachers are our most important resource and we (society) treat them like shit (unrelated to film, just my observation). great movie!
118 minutes worth of evidence as to why sally hawkins is fit to be paddington’s mom
the unspoken lesbian energy between two women sharing an apartment is probably my favorite cinema trope. the human heart was created with four chambers so i can fit poppy and her sexually ambiguous best friend on one side and frances ha and her sexually ambiguous best friend on the other
Holy shit, what a great movie. Sally Hawkins is phenomenal as the protagonist Poppy Cross. I'm in love. The prospect of entering a romantic relationship with a decent (and decent-looking) bloke is refreshingly treated as a peripheral concern; homosocial bonds are what sustain Poppy and her friends.
I don't really know what to say. I love being unsettled by films. I love dark, disturbing shit... I like movies to devastate me, creep me out. It leaves me feeling like I can rebuild myself into someone just a bit stronger each time. But Happy-Go-Lucky didn't do that. It fucked me up by making me squirm and laugh. It fucked me up by making me smile. It fucked me up by making…
The idea that femininity can be expressed through happiness rather than strength.
Cheerfully diverse in its color palette, contained and cozy in its cinematographic look, and personal in its direction; the feminist undertones are implemented in a focused and subtle way underneath the characteristics of the setting. Mike Leigh creates a character that is so unique, expressive, and relatable but does it in such an unconventional way. Someone that is so happy, maybe even too happy, and is exemplified through not only her sense of conversation but withal her body movements. There is so much personality from the way she physically moves, shakes, walks, and uses her hands. She has this bubbly and energetic tone to her persona that gives…
At the beginning of Naked, Mike Leigh presents David Thewlis’s character as wholly malicious, attacking everyone and everything he sees. At the beginning of Happy-Go-Lucky, Leigh presents Sally Hawkins’s character as relentlessly perky, attacking everyone and everything she sees. Both protagonists seem impossible to develop into round characters, but Leigh does it. His insight into human nature and his control of tone make his films feel lived in but profound, mundane but magical.
Here are some of my thoughts on this film; It really means a lot to me.
When people ask me if a film has changed my life ( or my outlook on life), I'm always apprehensive in providing an answer. I feel like if I claim a film to be life-changing, then something inside me must have shifted completely after the initial watch. I've been heavily and emotionally influenced by films, particularly ones where I see myself or my relationships reflected on the big screen, but I've never felt as though my path in life transformed as a result of watching a film. However, after a re-watch of Happy-Go-Lucky, I'm proudly bumping it up half a star, and I feel…
Frustratingly this appears to be one of Leigh's most divisive films, if not THE most divisive - and that's really something after a film that dealt squarely with the back street abortion issue! If you were to go on IMDB alone for example, you'll see a glut of message posts that completely miss the point.
There is so much wailing and ranting on there that Poppy was 'a naive dickhead' and a do gooder who only did so to appeal to her own ego. One idiot even bemoans that she's the type to 'go on marches' well heaven forbid people getting off their arse and trying to change things for good eh? Sadly it seems in this day and age…