"People, can't stand 'em," are among the first words we hear from Oscar-nominee Marianne Jean-Baptiste in the trailer for Mike Leigh's Hard Truths. "Cheerful, grinning people." What could they possibly be so happy about, her character Pansy wonders? For the answer to that, you'll have to buy a ticket to the movie. But from over here, we're pretty happy that Jean-Baptiste and Leigh have finally made another film together.
Hard Truths is a reunion for director Leigh in several senses. Not only is it his first contemporary set film since 2010’s Another Year, but it also marks the first time directing Jean-Baptiste since their 1996 breakthrough, Secrets & Lies. The movie explores the very different lives of Pansy (Jean-Baptsiste) and her younger sister (played by Another Year’s Michele Austin). A neurotic, afflicted, and raging wife and mother, Pansy isn’t a refreshing cup of tea like her sister, a single mother who is a Happy-Go-Lucky source of warmth in her community. Two people, one prickly, one kind? Yeah, this sounds like a Mike Leigh movie.
Now, this isn’t exactly the first collaboration between Leigh and Jean-Baptiste since Secrets & Lies. Jean-Baptiste is also a writer and composer who wrote the musical score to Leigh’s ’97 film Career Girls. We won’t hold that against them because 27 years is still a long time between projects.
Leigh’s first film since 2018’s Peterloo, Hard Truths will premiere on Friday, September 6, at the Toronto Film Festival. The movie opens nationwide on January 10th. Check out the first trailer down below.
