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Welcome to The B-Side! Here we talk about movie directors! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between.

Today we discuss Mike Leigh, one of our greatest living filmmakers. Born in England in 1943, Leigh remains an artist for the everyday person more than most. And this descriptor is quite reductive, as the writer/director’s aesthetic is deceivingly simple and incredibly effective. Our B-Sides are Life is Sweet, Career Girls, All or Nothing, and Peterloo. Our guest is Alex Heeney, Editor-in-Chief of The Seventh Row, co-author of Peterloo in Process, and host of the Seventh Row Podcast. They’ve covered several of Leigh’s films on the podcast, including Naked and Hard Truths.

Heeney also put together a short guide just for our listeners! It features a standout 2024 release that’s flown under the radar—with characters as rich...

Yes, this article may appear random, but over at Variety, Bob Verini posted an article back in early September I only came to read this weekend headlined "Roger Ebert: The Last Critic Who Matteredc" In his opening 'graph Verini seems to describe what it means to have "mattered" in one sentence, writing, "No other critic ever possessed the international platform of his TV gigs, his visibility or his celebrity." In this sense it seems "mattered" is matched with "popularity" and this isn't to discount Ebert's effect, I've long believed Ebert actually "mattered" because not only was he great at articulating his opinion he'd been around for such a long time and seen so many films during their first run. For him to compare a movie from the late '60s to one released in 2011 made more sense than it did/does for anyone else. It's one thing to have experienced...

Chicago – Leave it to The Criterion Collection to not just perfectly remaster one of the most acclaimed films of the ’90s but to take its ancestor, the film version of the play in which the modern classic centers around, and give it a similarly remarkable treatment. Fans of Mike Leigh’s “Topsy-Turvy” will adore the new Criterion edition, available now on DVD and Blu-ray, but they should also pick up “The Mikado” to see the inspirational musical in its entirety.

Blu-Ray Rating: 4.5/5.0

Mike Leigh is an international treasure; undeniably one of the best living directors. If you have yet to see films like “Secrets & Lies,” “Naked,” “Vera Drake,” and “Happy-Go-Lucky,” get thee to a Netflix queue and dive into the filmography of this fascinating filmmaker, one who works without a net. Most Leigh films are improvised affairs in which he knows the loose foundation of the story but works collaboratively...

In roles large and small, in theater and onscreen, Jim Broadbent is a masterful actor. Thanks to impeccable credentials—training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, rising up through Britain's National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, and continuing to ply his craft from his days in Britain's repertory system through today—he is superb in every role he takes on.Imprinting his work with his characteristic mix of truthfulness and colorful details, whether appearing in period comedies or wrenching dramas, he can play an astonishing variety of characters. The kinetic manager in "Moulin Rouge!" and the devastated husband in "Iris" reflect only two of the many extremes of his work. The straight-and-narrow judge in "Vera Drake" gives smooth way to Bridget Jones' placidly patient dad. And Broadbent deftly leaps from portraying a star in Woody Allen's "Bullets Over Broadway" to playing the Duke of...