All or Nothing (2002 Mike Leigh & scr)

Mike Leigh's Taxi Driver is so strong in the acting and state-of-the-nation observation that it's easy to forget there's a brilliant screenplay underneath, honed in months of improvisation and rehearsal. It should have won all sorts of awards, but didn't. It's somehow incredibly hypnotic. It's one of the best British films of all time, quite why I'm not sure, but it's in fact incredibly powerful and moving.

Timothy Spall, Leslie Manville, James Cordon and Alison Garland are the dysfunctional family - the father and daughter are like mirrors of each other. Everyone looks like they are weighed down by life.

Ruth Sheen is the only one who displays any positivism - she gives a remarkable performance and steals the film (with much competition). Helen Coker is their daughter, pregnant from abusive boyfriend Daniel Mays (scary).

The irresistible, irreplaceable Ruth Sheen (with Helen Coker)

Paul Jesson is married to the most pathetic drunk in film history, Marion Bailey; their aimless daughter is Sally Hawkins, fancied by Ben Crompton.

Many laughs amidst the misery. It's strangely not a depressing film at all (perhaps because it is so brilliant). Regular collaborators are Dick Pope on camera and Andrew Dickson composing.

Jonathan Ross famously urged people not to see it.

Mike says his separation from Alison Steadman is reflected in the central story. The opening shot of a corridor in an old people's home speaks volumes (as Amy Raphael points out, an Ozu shot). And what is Spall thinking as he stares out to sea in Dungeness? And the pivotal scene between Spall and Manville - one of cinema's finest - very slowly and subtly tracks (not zooms) in.

It made me want to watch every one of Mike's films again.

For some reason James Cordon's childish outbursts at his parents ("Fuck off. Leave me alone") really stuck in my head.