First Look at Mike Leigh’s ‘Hard Truths,’ Starring Marianne Jean-Baptiste

In the summer of 2021, I wrote about Mike Leigh saying that he’s struggling to find funding for his next project. Then, a few months later, I was told that he’d finally garnered enough dough to make his next film.

Leigh, who is turning 81 this month, started shooting this mysterious new film in May 2023 and, I was told, production wrapped in August. Leigh’s new film, his 23rd feature, is titled “Hard Truths.”

The rumor was that it would feature an all-Black cast, which is definitely a departure for the filmmaker, who is primarily known for his kitchen-sink influenced dramas about mundane lower-to-middle-class white families.

We now have our first look at “Hard Truths” (above) which reunites Leigh with actress Marianne Jean-Baptiste, who starred in 1996’s “Secrets & Lies” and was Oscar-nominated for Best Supporting Actress. As you can see, she looks deeply concerned while talking on the phone.

All that’s been revealed otherwise is that it “will explore family relationships in the post-pandemic world”. A source had added that the Brit auteur will “return to his ongoing exploration of the contemporary world with a tragicomic study of human strengths and weaknesses.”

The aim is probably a Cannes premiere — he’s screened many of his most famous films on the Croisette. However, 2018’s “Peterloo” was infamously rejected by Cannes and instead premiered at the Venice Film Festival a few months later.

Leigh’s last film was released five years ago, but he’s been a consistent figure in the world scene with landmark works such as “Secrets and Lies", “Life is Sweet” and “Naked.”

Leigh is notorious for not having a script to work with, and really not saying anything about what the film’s going to be, exploring and arriving at the film organically. The writing comes relatively late in the process, the result of a close collaboration with his cast.