Review of Life Is Sweet (1991) by Cody C — 02 Nov 2013

This is probably my favourite mike leigh film yet. I think a lot of the problems I have with Leigh's work were still present, but to a lesser extent. I find Leigh's films tend to have characters that turn into caricatures because we don't understand why they have all the crazy quirks that they do, and we can't relate to them on a human level.

There's also rarely a coherent sense of plot, which may be a european aesthetic, but to me, just makes the films feel scattered. This one was better I think, because Leigh got out of his own way a bit, and actually revealed a bit about his characters by the end, and the resulting emotion was wonderful.

I definitely think Leigh knows his characters extremely well, and he knows what he's doing, but that maybe his vision isn't always expressed in the best way, because a lot of times I find myself trying to grasp what it is.

then again, i've only seen a few of his works yet, and already, this being my 3rd film, I feel like I get it more, so maybe i'll understand his style and artistry once I see a more coherent collection of his work.