Hard Truths

1/19/2025

As many of us can attest, the strains of daily living and the ghosts of our past can take their toll on us in myriad ways, leaving us frazzled, frustrated, depressed and perpetually angry. We may not like the emergence of those outcomes, as they can effectively isolate us from others, including those we’re thought to care most about. But those conditions can become so overwhelming that we can’t cope nor allow well-meaning others to step in and help us. Such is the case for fifty-something middle class British housewife and mother, Pansy (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), who constantly complains, yells and criticizes everybody and everything around her, including her hard-working husband, Curtley (David Webber), and withdrawn 22-year-old son, Moses (Tuwaine Barrett). Curtley and Moses have been so

1/31/2025

<em>'Hard Truths'</em> features superb performances and an extremely hearty narrative, it's genuinely one of the saddest films I've seen in a long while; these type of real, gritty stories are always more impactful to me than the more manufactured drama (not that that's bad). Marianne Jean-Baptiste is outstanding as Pansy, a character that is on the surface quite unlikeable but due to her performance as well as smart writing it is actually easy to still care for the character; it's clear why she is the way she is. Michele Austin is also terrific, I couldn't put my finger on where I remembered her from - TV's <em>'This Is Going to Hurt'</em>. David Webber and Tuwaine Barrett are effective in their roles too, arguably not difficult characters to play but I did feel for them both. Ani N

2/4/2025

Marianne Jean-Baptiste turns in a splendid performance here as the troubled "Pansy". She's married to "Curtley" (David Webber) and mother to "Moses" (Tiwaine Barrett) but suffice to say she's not an happy woman. Her glass is most definitely half empty as she delivers monologue after monologue of depressing observations about the decline of society as she picks a fight with just about everyone and anyone she can - including her family. That family also includes her more upbeat hairdresser sister "Chantelle" (Michele Austin) and it's through that familial link that we start to discover just what might be driving this obsessively destructive behaviour. It's an observation of a few day in their lives, with limited information available to us before an even less well defined conclusion, but it

2/19/2025

I love how angry this lady is. She's so smart. Every day she'd cut me to pieces; asking me why my chihuahua is wearing clothes. Great emotion. Tension. How is that house so fucking organized? Box it up. She's better than Culkin. A much more real pain. A much tighter run time. It is the best sad film.