Leigh fluffs his big historical moment
There’s something dusty and clumsy about Mike Leigh's Peterloo that saps the film of its zeal and urgency; a fogginess that settles early and never lifts.
Cinema
Peterloo: Directed by Mike Leigh, Nationwide, 12A,Rating:**
Slaughterhouse Rulez: Directed by Crispian Mills, Nationwide, 15A,Rating:**
Mike Leigh’s four-decade career chronicling the lives of the British working class brings him all the way back to the Peterloo Massacre, an infamous cavalry charge by heavily-armed soldiers against pro-democracy protesters, often cited as the origins of the human rights movement, that took place in Leigh’s home city of Manchester in 1819. Fifteen people were killed ...
