Hard Truths

Hard Truths makes for an endlessly hard watch with a seemingly unfluctuating screenplay (as static as Pansy’s own life) moving from one simmering encounter of hers to another.

It’s a character-driven drama that jolts you awake to how pain can manifest in people, and why even the most annoying ones are deserving of compassion.

Jean-Baptiste is amazing as this shouty, judgmental, frightened, lonely woman...she delivers a performance for the ages.

For those on Leigh’s wavelength, Hard Truths is his funniest film in many years, and as emotionally truthful as the title promises, despite a few flickers of sentimentality around the edges.

Call it the sorrow of the ordinary front door, of which Hard Truths grows into a graceful study. Credit to Jean-Baptiste and the actors. And to Leigh, for making, at 81, one of the best films of his career. 

Make no mistake, these performances are certainly worth the weight of attention that is placed upon them. But great turns don’t always amount to a great picture.

Jean-Baptiste brings to complex, furious life an anti-heroine as unlikable as she is unforgettable.

One of the most memorable performances in years. Jean-Baptiste is so profoundly, aggressively unpleasant.

Mike Leigh and his collaborators, this time, the great Marianne Jean Baptiste as the lead, dig deeper into prevailing humanity underneath all the bitterness and hate. And it's a sight to see.

The film is deliberate, conscious of its aims, but also contains the contradictoriness and unexpectedness of real life.