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Life Is Sweet
Life Is Sweet

Life Is Sweet (1990), Directed by Mike Leigh (R, 105 minutes)

Life Is Sweet, released in 1990 and now available on Blu-ray, is the first internationally recognized film by British director Mike Leigh, whose reputation is built on reflections of sometimes bleak, gritty realism constructed not with a script but with premises developed through improvising with actors.

It’s a microscopic, fascinating, funny and intimate inspection of the day-to-day life of a working-class family in a north London suburb made up of good-natured mom Wendy (Alison Steadman, Leigh’s wife at the time) and dad Andy (Jim Broadbent) and their totally opposite twenty something twins, kindly plumber’s assistant Natalie (Claire Skinner) and troubled, unhappy no-account Nicola (Jane Horrocks).

“The world that British director Mike Leigh creates in his sublime comedy Life Is Sweet has a quality of miraculous, fragile spontaneity,” says critic Hal Hinson in The Washington Post. “Everything in this gently brilliant film seems to take place right before your eyes, without the intervention of aesthetic planning or direction. It simply happens in the moment, as if the characters were actually living on screen. This allows us to observe the daily life of an emphatically average lower-middle-class Middlesex family without feeling that the events have been staged for our benefit; he creates a style of dramatic verite that’s completely without mechanism. It’s as if Leigh had quietly lifted the rooftop off their unremarkable little house and allowed us to peek in.”

What we observe is a chronicle of their ordinariness and proof that - at least as far as families are concerned - no such thing as “ordinary” actually exists.

Dark Skies (PG-13, 97 minutes) A supernatural thriller in which Lacy and Daniel Barrett (Keri Russell and Josh Hamilton), having moved to the suburbs to raise their children, are OK with their new location until a series of strange occurrences at night - including migrating birds smashing into their house - unsettle them. Directed by Scott Stuart. “Dark Skies is sort of supernatural, but it’s really more super natural,” says critic Stephanie Zacharek on the website Film.com. “[It’s] about the fragility of family, a muted meditation on how precious it is.”

My Super Ex-Girlfriend (PG-13, 95 minutes) This action comedy from 2006 concerns Matt Saunders (Luke Wilson), who thinks he has finally found the perfect girlfriend in Jenny Johnson (Uma Thurman), who happens to be a superhero who goes by the name of G-Girl. Then Jenny-/G-Girl becomes overly possessive, so Matt dumps her for his co-worker Hannah (Anna Faris), which brings on a bout of super-powered wrath. With Rainn Wilson, Wanda Sykes; directed by Ivan Reitman. “A breezy time pass entertainment with a little bit of bite,” says critic Michael Dequina on the website TheMovieReport.com.

The Magic Christian (unrated, 93 minutes) This is a 1969 comedy, directed by Joseph McGrath and now available on Blu-ray. The premise: The richest man in the world (Peter Sellers) adopts a homeless vagrant (Ringo Starr) and sets out to prove that anyone and anything can be bought with money. “Funny, uncomfortable and without an ounce of benevolence,” says critic Roger Greenspun in The New York Times. With Raquel Welch, Richard Attenborough, Yul Brynner, Roman Polanski, Christopher Lee.

Lore (unrated, 109 minutes) Left to fend for themselves after their SS officer father and Nazi believer mother are interred by the victorious Allies at the end of World War II, five German children undertake a harrowing journey led by eldest sibling, 14-year-old Lore (Saskia Rosendahl), that exposes them to the reality and consequences of their parents’ actions. Directed by Cate Shortland. “Full of surprises, the movie draws a thin line between pity and revulsion - how would you feel if you had discovered your whole life had been based on lies?” says critic Leba Hertz in the San Francisco Chronicle.

MovieStyle, Pages 37 on 05/31/2013

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