Happy-Go-Lucky (movie)

The Angel's Share Directed by Ken Loach   It wouldn't exactly be right to say that old age has softened director Ken Loach. When Margaret Thatcher died a few weeks ago, the famously leftist British filmmaker ended a tirade about her by suggesting...

"W.E.," Madonna's second go at directing a feature film, leaves one wishing she'd find other creative outlets for those times when she's bored with the pop-star life. A new fashion line? Another documentary disassembling her latest truths and dares? What...

*** (out of four) If Tigger were slower, calmer—and human—he might be like Ned (Paul Rudd), a likable optimist who’s never held a steady job and isn’t that concerned about it. His sisters (Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel, Emily...

Madonna may be the most famous name associated with "W.E.," the romantic drama she directed that premiered at the Venice Film Festival in late summer. But the woman everyone could be talking about after the film comes out on Dec. 9 is someone rather...

Michael Fassbender, 'Shame' and 'A Dangerous Method' You likely first saw Michael Fassbender as the cheeky Lt. Archie Cox in "Inglorious Basterds" or as Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto in this summer's "X-Men: First Class." But it's the latter part of this year...

"Another Year" looks like another top Oscar contender for British gadfly Mike Leigh, who earned nominations for directing and writing best picture nominee "Secrets and Lies" (1996), writing "Topsy-Turvy" (1998), directing and writing "Vera Drake" (2004)...

One thing you miss out on when you skip the fall-makes-its-bow Toronto Film Festival is the anointment of the fall phenoms — the coronation of Colin Firth, the arrival of Peter Dinklage as a movie star, Sofia Coppola as a star director or a Carey...

Notoriously candid director Mike Leigh really let loose when I sat down with him at the Toronto International Film Festival and asked him what he thought about showbiz awards. He's grateful for the love he gets from Yankee and European kudos, but —...

She's hardly a household name in America, but Sally Hawkins is a major rising star in British film and theater circles, perhaps best known for her 2008 Golden Globe winning performance in Mike Leigh's "Happy-Go-Lucky." Now she's a big hit......

Poor Sally Hawkins. Her perky performance in "Happy-Go-Lucky" earned her best-actress trophies in 2008 from the Golden Globes, New York Film Critics Circle, L.A. Film Critics Assn. and the National Society of Film Critics, but she wasn't nominated at...

New movies are wisely staying out of the way of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1," this weekend, except, of course, for Russell Crowe's -- his thriller "The Next Three Days" is the other lone wide release. Whether Crowe's (and Elizabeth...

What, exactly, was “Made in Dagenham,” the gigantic Ford factory in the UK, back in 1968? Nothing less than equal rights for women, Nigel Cole's “Norma Rae from the UK” suggests. It's a cheeky and uplifting “inspired-by-a-...