It has a jaunty title — Happy-Go-Lucky — and a perky protagonist in a young woman called Poppy, played just this side of annoying, but often entrancingly, by Sally Hawkins. Some of the early reviewers ...

Mike Leigh’s films speak to theater lovers. He rehearses the actors for a long time, and he works with an ensemble of actors, which is something I care about. But my favorite thing about Leigh is that ...