Some flashes of the mastery that was to come in decades hence and what felt like in many ways an exercise in providing the canvas wash for the poetic tragicomic painting of familial discord that is Secrets and Lies.
Colin would quite clearly be perceived as autistic by today's audiences, and the performance from Tim Roth, and indeed all the leads, including a notably unhinged turn from a young Oldman (sounds oxymoronic I know) are nuanced and studied.
Well worth…
Devastating. What else is there to say about this paintful, pleasurable work of art that hasn't been said already? 'Sweetartttt' - That it is. Really a masterpiece.
Achingly raw and real, with a great many laugh-out-loud moments, this is also a film with characters who clearly read as neurodivergent.
Just don't tell that to Leigh himself, who famously, and in a post Q&A one to one chat was characteristically vague and noncommital, always preferring the film spoke for itself.
Well, it does, and through its frail, flawed characters it speaks volumes about how we are all just muddling through, trying to make the best of a rotten deal and trying to live and laugh a little along the way.
Unbeknownst to many Westerners, Japan is a nation with a proud tradition of what are referred to as ‘listening cafés’. As the name so helpfully suggests, these are cafés, commonly situated in areas of dense urban sprawl, where weary citizens can escape from the hustle and bustle of modern life and bathe themselves in the dulcet tones of a certain genre or style of music, all while perhaps supping at a nice warm mug of freshly brewed coffee.
Also referred…
