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Hard Truths (2024)

Pansy: You can't go in or out of a supermarket without being harassed by those grinning, cheerful charity workers begging you for money for their stupid causes. Why they gotta skin their teeth like that? Cheerful, grinning people. Can't stand 'em. Loitering out there, demanding your hard-earned cash. It's a scam. They're scamming people. Can't trust 'em. They want your phone number, your email. I asked one of them - I, I said, "Why do you want my postcode? I might as well just give you my front door key so you can bruk into my house, tief out my things, and kill my only child." And nobody calls the police on them. Police wouldn't come anyway. They're too busy harassing Black boys walking. And him round the corner with that dog. Got it dressed up in a red coat and green booties. Why has the dog got on a coat? It's got fur, innit? It must be sweating under there, stinking. That's cruelty to animals, that is, putting it under all that plastic. I've got a mind to report him to the NSPCG or whatever they call 'em. And her over there with that fat baby. Cold, cold, cold, and she's walking up and down the street with nothing but a big pink bow on its bald head so everybody can tell it's a girl, like I care. Parading it around in the little outfit. Not dressed for the weather. Nah. With pockets. What's a baby got pockets for? What's it gonna keep in its pocket? A knife?

Funny enough the punchline of this rant just came up in conversation in my house like two days ago -- we were so seen by Pansy. So seen. And I don't even have it in me to get into how robbed Marianne Jean-Baptiste was at the Oscars -- not even nominated for this brilliant, funny, heart-rending performance. The Oscars are a fucking scam. Ahem. No not getting into it! Just wishing the legendary Mike Leigh a happy 83rd birthday today. He's got a new movie coming out this year, did you hear? It doesn't have a title yet but per usual four of his previously-used actors are showing up -- Marion Bailey (she's Leigh's partner and has been in many of his movies over the years including All or Nothing and Meantime and Vera Drake and Mr. Turner to name but a few), Paul Jesson (another many-times-used actor), Kate O’Flynn (Happy-Go-Lucky), and then Alice Bailey Johnson who was in Hard Truths -- she was the girl in the furniture store who memorably got yelled at by Pansy. We don't know anything else about it but any year with a new Mike Leigh movie is incapable of being all bad, so thank goodness for this news. We need it.