1 2 3 (hey) look at Mr. Leigh. (Patreon)

Another fairly close race in the poll this week, with Secrets & Lies receiving 52% opposite The Old Man & the Gun in a battle of the ampersands. Mike Leigh was my favorite filmmaker in 1996 (I switched allegiance to Egoyan the following year, just in time for him to go irreversibly downhill; don't really have one today—maybe Rian given that I've liked or loved everything to date but I know him so that feels weird; oh wait Maren Ade, that's my answer), and while I liked Secrets & Lies enough to name it an honorable mention on my top 10 list that year, it nonetheless seemed like a mild disappointment to me after the magnificence of High Hopes (of which I've since downgraded my opinion to "quite good"), Life Is Sweet and especially Naked. Watched it twice that fall and have never revisited it, so I'm curious to see how it lands today. It's streaming on HBO Max and the Criterion Channel. 

Unrelated: I've only just this moment realized that tomorrow—when the Skandie winners will be posted (I give you #2 and #1 about 15 minutes apart, since the "nominees" rundown means that the winners are obvious via process of elimination)—is April Fools' Day. You have my word that none of the results will be a prank. Not that any will look like a prank, really, but just heading that off now.