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Peterloo

Peterloo

2018

Mike Leigh

Rory Kinnear, Maxine Peake, David Bamber, Marion Bailey ...

6.1

558

Drama The story of the 1819 Peterloo Massacre where British forces attacked a peaceful pro-democracy rally in Manchester.

	Media	Author	Review
		A. O. Scott The New York Times	"[A] brilliant and demanding film"
		Peter Travers Rolling Stone	"Leigh’s visceral staging, especially in the climactic moments (...) brings home the significance of a 200-year-old bloodbath that still speaks urgently to the disenfranchised (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Stephen Dalton The Hollywood Reporter	"A worthy but heavy-handed history lesson (...) The ambition is wholly laudable, the execution less so."
		Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"Mike Leigh brings an overwhelming simplicity and severity to this historical epic (...) There is force, grit and, above all, a sense of purpose (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Robbie Collin Telegraph	"Mike Leigh's historical epic is rewarding - if unapologetically ambitious (...) Complex, rousing and rewarding (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Guy Lodge Variety	"A frequently rousing experience (...) One wonders if the film has really found its optimum form (...) At once exhaustive and exhausting"
		Stephanie Zacharek Time	"Even if you've never heard of the Peterloo Massacre, this picture-beautifully staged and shot, with a you-are-there urgency-will reward your patience."
		Joe Morgenstern The Wall Street Journal	"This is historical re-creation on an epic scale. Yet it's a down-to-earth epic, with a density of detail that's stirring in its humanity and frightening in its clarity about miscalculations on both sides."
		Glenn Kenny rogerebert.com	"Unfortunately, Leigh’s passion for the material seems to have led him to approach it from an angle more pedagogic than artistic."
		Kenneth Turan Los Angeles Times	"Difficult to experience though its finale may be, "Peterloo" very much gives off the sense that watching is essential."
		Ben Croll IndieWire	"The film really does feel dramatically inert (...) History repeats itself, first as tragedy and then as bland docudrama."
		Fionnuala Halligan Screendaily	"Always demanding, often didactic, yet cumulatively rousing (...) [A] magnificently-realised film"
		Gregory Ellwood The Playlist	"While Leigh transports you back to 1819 through these rich characters, he simply tests the audience’s patience in getting to the heart of the story"
		Geoffrey Macnab The Independent	"[It] has a huge ensemble cast but that exhaustive attention to detail and fascination with the eccentricities of human behaviour which has always characterised his work is still there (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"

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