All or Nothing

Mike Leigh's last screening at the Film Club was the triumphant Topsy Turvy, a departure from his familiar territory, but he returns to working-class drama with this tale of minicab driver, Phil (Spall) and partner Penny (Manville). The film provides a very persuasive, dramatically powerful account of London housing-estate lives blighted by economic hardship, emotional inarticulacy, glaring resentment and impoverished hopes. Balancing scenes of bitter-sweet hilarity and harrowing starkness, Leigh has pulled off an affecting portrait of modern British working-class life, the film building to a truthful and genuinely moving climax.