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What is the best Mike Leigh film?

By YPB Team

From bleak character studies to lavish period dramas, this filmography swings between kitchen-sink realism and unexpected warmth. Which one earns your vote?

  1. Naked — ranked #11
    Naked
    Leigh's bleak 1993 odyssey through London's underbelly, led by David Thewlis's ferocious performance.
    1000pts
  2. Secrets & Lies — ranked #22
    Secrets & Lies
    A 1996 drama about a Black optometrist who discovers her birth mother is white and working-class.
    809pts
  3. Happy-Go-Lucky — ranked #33
    Happy-Go-Lucky
    A relentlessly cheerful primary school teacher navigates a grumpy driving instructor and life's frustrations.
    485pts
  4. Topsy-Turvy — ranked #44
    Topsy-Turvy
    A 1999 backstage drama chronicling Gilbert and Sullivan's creation of The Mikado.
    485pts
  5. High Hopes — ranked #55
    High Hopes
    Leigh's 1988 satire of Thatcher-era London class divisions centered on a working-class couple.
    397pts
  6. Another Year — ranked #66
    Another Year
    A contented older couple's life is contrasted against the loneliness of the friends around them across four seasons.
    397pts
  7. Vera Drake — ranked #77
    Vera Drake
    Imelda Staunton stars as a 1950s London housewife secretly performing illegal abortions.
    397pts
  8. Mr. Turner — ranked #88
    Mr. Turner
    Timothy Spall plays eccentric painter J.M.W. Turner in this lush biographical drama.
    397pts
  9. Hard Truths — ranked #99
    Hard Truths
    Leigh's 2024 drama starring Marianne Jean-Baptiste as a woman consumed by anger and fear.
    397pts
  10. Life is Sweet — ranked #1010
    Life is Sweet
    A 1990 tragicomedy about a chaotic North London family and their diverging paths.
    291pts
  11. Career Girls — ranked #1111
    Career Girls
    Two former college roommates reunite in 1997 to revisit their shared past and how much they've changed.
    291pts
  12. All or Nothing — ranked #1212
    All or Nothing
    A 2002 drama following a struggling working-class family in a South London housing estate.
    291pts
  13. Peterloo — ranked #1313
    Peterloo
    A 2018 historical epic dramatizing the 1819 Peterloo Massacre in Manchester.
    162pts

#movies641#directors87#mike leigh1#british cinema1

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