Mike Leigh is my favorite director. His movies are astonishing! I understand and appreciate why epic tales of romance and valor, like Greek gods, are so immesnse and mezmerizing. They give a larger sense of importance to the universal condition but how many of us truly experience tales like that in our own lives? Mike Leigh can take the ordinary happenstance of living and make it epic, that resonates so much louder with me. First off he never has too many characters and we all know I hate if there are more that 3 or 4 characters to truly follow. It just allows me to connect more completely. Then he takes a snapshot of life and shows a monumental experience via the ordinary daily experiences that we all have. That makes a true epic tale.
Another Year does exactly what Mike Leigh does so well. It brings you interesting and complex characters in an seemingly ordinary world and shows you an extraordinary story. Life is made up of so many little battles, tiny wins, small triumphs as well as minor heartbreaks, trivial setbacks and mini obsticales that you become immune to them and do not recognize them. Nor do you fully see how together they form a life and tell a powerful story. Another Year both recognizes them and displays them. I loved this movie. It spoke so loudly and clearly to me. It made me see and appreciate the epic stories in my own life that might not seem so epic.
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