Mike Leigh's "Peterloo" (Amazon, 11.9), has had a strange journey ever since it was, most likely, rejected by Cannes. Venice picked it up as a premiere, but a dark shadow looms all over this movie. Is it as bad as the rumors say it is? The trailer doesn't necessarily give you that impression, but it also doesn't announce a potentially rousing film either. This looks like the kind of film that Ken Loach consistently produces in his sleep.
Leigh's film is a recreation of the Peterloo Massacre of 1819, a clash between government officials and protesters which ended with 15 civilians being killed. What originally started as a march of 60,000 citizens at St. Peter’s Field, to demand Parliamentary reform and an expansion of voting rights, turned into a police state bout of violence that still stings to this day.
Leigh's last film was 2014's "Mr. Turner," a biopic of artist J.M.W Turner. His stock has slightly tumbled over the last few years, although he still remains one of the greatest British directors of all-time. The director's indisputably great movies will always be, for me at least, "Secrets and Lies," and "Naked."