Nil By Mouth: one of the greatest flawed movies ever made. Written and directed by
Gary Oldman in the style of
Mike Leigh, although not quite as satisfying as Leigh's own work. NBM is a very long portrait of a working-class family in
London, concentrating on
Ray Winstone as the alcoholic patriarch. The story is
cyclical, but "real-life" cyclical rather than artistic - after a two-hour journey, everybody is back in the exact same place they were in the first scene. I have to admit that these journeys are more satisfying when they actually go somewhere, but I still found NBM to be extremely powerful.
The Dry Facts: released in 1997. Starring Ray Winstone and Kathy Burke, Charlie Creed-Miles, Laila Morse and many other very talented, but unfortunately not-famous, people. Produced by Gary Oldman, Luc Besson, Marc Frydman, Hillary Heath, and Douglas Urbanski. Features original music by Eric Clapton.
The Bad News: Nil By Mouth made almost no money, although most of the reviews were pretty enthusiastic. As a result of this financial failure, it was never even sold on VHS. Perhaps someday it will be available on DVD, probably in the same year as "Naked" and "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead". We can only hope.