Secrets & Lies (1996, *not 2015*)
Details
a Mike Leigh drama/comedy about the secrets and lies that tear apart a dysfunctional British family.
wondrous, wrenching and crazily funny to behold.
- Newsweek
It moves us on a human level, it keeps us guessing during scenes as unpredictable as life, and it shows us how ordinary people have a chance of somehow coping with their problems, which are rather ordinary, too.
- Chicago Sun-Times
To be honest, I have never been able to tell if Leigh is ... the protective father figure, ... doing his part to assure that the meek really shall inherit the earth, or their exploiter, transfixed not by their prosaic nobility, but by patent tawdriness of the lives, a critic dumfounded by their arrogance in the face of self-imposed adversity?
In the end, it hardly matters what he thinks of his characters; what is important is that he sees them as individuals and forces his audience to see them as individuals, as well. ... I suspect it is the intensity of emotions of people under stress that causes Leigh to concentrate his camera on all manner of lowlifes.
- Dallas Observer
92 metacritic score
Cannes: Palme D'Or, best actress
Academy Awards: 5 Nominations
Golden Globes: 1 Win, 3 Nominations
BAFTA Awards: 3 Wins, 7 Nominations
2 h 16 min
stream for free on criterion, hulu, HBO max
rent from apple tv, fandango, amazon
*** NOTE TO NEW MEMBERS ***
Please watch the movie before the meetup. Information to help find the films will generally be posted in the description or in the comments on the webpage. During the meetup itself, we discuss the movie, but we don't watch it. It's a book club style movie group.