esrosedotblog

TWITS AND ROTTERS

Today's NYTimes 1176 Best Film was Mike Leigh's

High Hopes (1988)

This is black comedy, class warfare and a nasty swipe at Thatcherism.

It helps if you are a Brit of a certain age when you watch this picture. I am not.

Leigh uses improvisation and builds his script from his actors work together. I am not sure this is a good idea.

The product is always over the top and overheated. I like parts of it. Funny, incisive. Good ideas. But somehow, the nastiness and the over reaching get to me.

This film does not offer a "hearing impaired" option so I only understood about a half of it. Too fast, too many accents.

I will have to give this a 3 out of Netflix5. If I do a Mike Leigh festival I won't include this one.

Labels: best films