Thank the Cinema Gods, Mike Leigh Is Back

When characters in movies wake up with a sudden start, it’s usually an indication that they’ve had a nightmare. So, when we see Pansy (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), the middle-aged protagonist of Mike Leigh’s marvelous Hard Truths, startle herself awake in the film’s opening scenes, we figure she too has been having a bad dream. But over the course of the picture, we come to understand that Pansy is like this every time she wakes up: She catapults herself into consciousness with a violent half-scream.