"This is how I got into Mike Leigh. I mean, Mike Leigh is Mike Leigh, he's got a lot of hits. But I'm still an asshole, I haven't seen Abigail's Party yet."

"One more… I think it’s gonna have to be Naked by Mike Leigh."

"Naked directed by Mike Leigh. Apart from the rape at the start, I love the main character so much. I never really pay attention to actors but this must be one of the greatest performances ever. I’ve really enjoyed watching Mike Leigh films this year. They’re very British and I’ve been away from home so long that it feels a bit like going home when I watch them."

"This is Mike Leigh at his best. The way characters are mixed together is like a chemistry equation. It’s also hilarious. "I want to see the zoo she said I want to see the zoo…""

"I love Mike Leigh, and this is one of his best. A brutal character study, it’s a journey into the psyche of a man at war with himself and the world. Bleak, hilarious, and uncompromising. Also, the DVD includes Mike Leigh’s wonderful, demented short film The Short and Curlies (featuring another great performance by David Thewlis)."

"Well, England is to my taste a great, great film country. I don’t think any filmmakers have been greater than Hitchcock, fabulously represented in the Criterion Collection by The Lady Vanishes and a great box set, Wrong Men & Notorious Women; Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, represented by many films, including The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (one of their very best, also made during World War II); and of course Mike Leigh. Topsy-Turvy is so fascinating, because Mike Leigh celebrates precisely the approach to acting that he has driven his own actors farther and farther away from in his own films."

"I guess the first one would be the Mike Leigh movie, Naked. The performances in the movie are so great. David Thewlis — it’s just one of the greatest performances I’ve ever seen. And the movie — they improvised to find a script. They improvised for months and months, and then Mike Leigh writes a script based on the improv, and you can tell that it’s come from such a pure place, because it’s natural for all the actors, but it’s also just the — walking around London, and it’s just incredible. And also, my favorite actress of all time is Katrin Cartlidge, and she’s in that movie. She’s ridiculous in it, she’s so good."

"Scandinavian cinema has, I admit, obsessed me for most of my career as a critic. But all credit to Criterion for giving this bizarre and seductive silent film from 1922 the same loving attention as they would a new release by Richard Linklater or Mike Leigh. For extra value, the DVD includes an abridged version of the movie issued in 1968, with a sly offscreen narration by William S. Burroughs."

"I love all of Mike Leigh’s films but this is the one that had a big impact on me. Like all of films above, it beautifully combines comedy and drama. It was also a stylistic departure for Leigh, who still held on to the British social-realism vibe but delivered it in a very cinematic and calculated way. Also should be seen for Katrin Cartlidge who had a very bright but tragically short career."

"This film is so damn smart and funny, such a great combination of humor and pathos. I wish Mike Leigh did more comedies. The performances are incredible and the dialogue is solid gold. Some all-time great portrayals of sloppy drunk shenanigans. I could watch a dozen sequels with Timothy Spall’s character. In an alternate (and more just) universe, instead of Mr. Bean movies we would have an endless number of Life Is Sweet sequels starring Timothy Spall."