Popular reviews

• 

  Review by fran hoepfner ★★★★★ 2

  that fuckin diner scene!!! that fuckin bbq scene!!!!! Timothy Spall picking up a sausage no bun eating it with his hands!!!!!!!!!

• 

  Review by Edgar Cochran ✝️ ★★★★★ 9

  "SECRETS & LIES!!"

  Leigh as a director has always been an exciting guarantee of bringing along two things: some of the best leading and secondary performances you will see in modern cinema, and a screenplay so complex in the human emotions it entails, that you’ll arrive to the conclusion that such richly-layered explorations of the human condition reflect the vision of a man that perfectly understands the contemporary problems of the modern family concept, so long submerged in an asphyxiating urbanized environment of a corrupted “civilized” moral. And I’ll come back to the screenplay, because you’re in for a surprise.

  For creating a proper background and emotional attachment to the film from the point of view of the spectator, the film’s…

• 

  Review by Jack Moulton ★★★★★ 1

  I can believe it won the Palme d'or for the cafe scene alone. 

  There are very few performances better than Brenda Blethyn's. Maybe none. Enough said.

• 

  Review by KYK ★★★★★ 1

  some of the best performances ever captured on film

• 

  Review by Milo Paulus ★★★★★ 15

  In the hands of lesser director, Secrets & Lies could have easily been a melodramatic, sentimental soap opera, but with some of the most real performances you will ever see, observant direction and nuanced writing, Mike Leigh has created a devastatingly authentic, contemporary and frightingly realistic people-person masterpiece where he stupendously mixes humor and pathos as if it's nothing.

  Mike Leigh is one of the most humanist filmmakers to have ever walked the earth. He is a man who just loves people, especially the ones who have a lot of emotional baggage. But what separates the artists from the lesser filmmakers—from stuff like Secrets & Lies to a soap—is taste and talent. Leigh has good taste and he knows how to steer…

• 

  Review by Sally Jane Black 3

  It's not fair to call this a portrayal of non-toxic masculinity, nor of toxic masculinity, because it doesn't feel right to describe Maurice in those terms. Not that he is feminine or genderless, but that his role is one where his gender is not the defining part of his character. Instead, he's allowed to simply be a complex figure like the rest of the characters; the reason this is particularly meaningful here is that he has an outburst toward the end that in a less well-written narrative would be gendered. Of course, gender is unavoidable in any narrative within capitalist patriarchy, but here it's backgrounded and de-amplified. Maurice's outburst, one of frustration, could easily have veered into the realm of…

• 

  Review by Noah DiVincenzo ★★★★★ 2

  “We’re all in pain. 
  Why can’t we share our pain. “

• 

  Review by eely 🎄 ★★★★½ 1

  I have never felt so many emotions at once. I just want cynthia to call me sweetheart. brb gotta call me mum

• 

  Review by Jacob ★★★★★ 1

  Constructed realism at its peak. The story is broken down perfectly and yet each and every moment feels so natural and of its own pace. It's two hours of talking that feels like a never-ending action sequence. Within a conversation, there's this genuine feeling that we're just watching two people chat about whatever comes to mind, and then slowly yet suddenly, everyone gets on the same page. We realize what the thing is what we're not talking about, and the following silence is heavy. There are great performances in loads of movies, but to have characters that feel this lived in is rare. Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Brenda Blethyn have the strangest chemistry. So damn good.

• 

  Review by fran hoepfner ★★★★★

  Manville showing up for all of seven minutes and knocking it out of the park

• 

  Review by Paul Elliott ★★★★★

  Secrets & Lies, written and directed by Mike Leigh, is a precarious yet beautiful balance of poignancy and comedy, one which emerges as emotionally touching but neither ponderous nor pretentious. Headed by a cast comprising of many frequenters of Leigh’s movies, it competed in the 1996 Cannes Film Festival, where it ultimately attained three awards, including Best Actress for Brenda Blethyn as well as the Palme d'Or.

  It deals with complicated family matters, and while the storyline implies a broad melodrama, Leigh displays himself a virtuoso of subtle differences; delivering an emotional film that doesn’t submit to the conventional generic traditions and restrictions. In a similar way to other entries in Leigh’s filmography, this slice of life is an ultra-realist spectacle with flickers of comedy that are dazzlingly written, directed, and acted by all involved.

• 

  Review by Sam Meltzer ★★★★★ 5

  Mike Leigh seamlessly perceives the difficult feeling of being trapped between shame and denial, using the raw state of the actors and impressive takes to create intimacy between the viewer and the film. With a story as simple as this, it isn’t easy to expect such fierce poignancy and emotionally draining moments, yet Leigh pulls it off thoroughly. There’s a grand sense of tension and personal complexity that lies within these sensitive topics, making a seemingly depressing story feel incredibly engaging. 

  Brenda Blethyn and Marianne Jean-Baptiste give two of the best performances of the 90s, wonderfully executing the vehemence and tricky sense of love between two separate but connected characters. The scenes showcasing their interactions, driven interestingly through Leigh’s unscripted, ambiguous filmmaking, are among the most powerful and moving moments ever brought to screen. Both a delight and an absolutely devastating story, Secrets & Lies is a forceful field of admiration, desperation and compassion.