What is the best Mike Leigh film?

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

Leigh's bleak 1993 odyssey through London's underbelly, led by David Thewlis's ferocious performance.

1000pts

2

Secrets & Lies

A 1996 drama about a Black optometrist who discovers her birth mother is white and working-class.

809pts

3

Happy-Go-Lucky

A relentlessly cheerful primary school teacher navigates a grumpy driving instructor and life's frustrations.

485pts

4

Topsy-Turvy

A 1999 backstage drama chronicling Gilbert and Sullivan's creation of The Mikado.

485pts

5

High Hopes

Leigh's 1988 satire of Thatcher-era London class divisions centered on a working-class couple.

397pts

6

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

Imelda Staunton stars as a 1950s London housewife secretly performing illegal abortions.

397pts

8

Mr. Turner

Timothy Spall plays eccentric painter J.M.W. Turner in this lush biographical drama.

397pts

9

Hard Truths

Leigh's 2024 drama starring Marianne Jean-Baptiste as a woman consumed by anger and fear.

397pts

10

Life is Sweet

A 1990 tragicomedy about a chaotic North London family and their diverging paths.

291pts

11

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

A 2002 drama following a struggling working-class family in a South London housing estate.

291pts

13

Peterloo

A 2018 historical epic dramatizing the 1819 Peterloo Massacre in Manchester.

162pts