Leigh never lets his audience escape the underlying humiliation and helplessness Pansy feels, and Pansy never allows herself that grace either. In that respect, calling the film “Hard Truths” almost implies a well-earned victory lap for a filmmaker who has dedicated his work to elucidating the complexities of the human condition,

It's amazing watching Mike Leigh's film Hard Truths, starring the extraordinary Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Michele Austin, in an American theater. Another layer is added as audience members, mostly women at the regular afternoon screening I attended,

She reteams with her "Secret and Lies" director, Mike Leigh, for this brutally funny drama about a British woman consumed with anger.

Actress Marianne Jean-Baptiste joins Morning Joe to discuss her role in Mike Leigh's new film 'Hard Truths,' where she plays the deeply unhappy and angry character Pansy. 'Hard Truths' marks the first time Jean-Baptiste and Leigh have worked together since the 1996 film 'Secrets and Lies'.

Leigh does not typically work off a script when creating his stories, but rather builds his films off improvisations conducted with his actors.

The director's latest misanthropic drama, following such films as "Bleak Moments" and "Naked," is a puckeringly sour delight, socked over by Marianne Jean-Baptiste.

In his excoriatingly funny new film, the British realist Mike Leigh reunites with a key actor from his 1996 triumph, “Secrets & Lies.”

In partnership with his actors, Leigh excavates and displays the most vulnerable emotions and experiences a person can have, his films slowly building to cathartic crescendos, with glimmers of hope and salvation shining through.