6. Secrets And Lies
If the British film industry can be said to have earned a reputation for producing dour, miserablist cinema, that reputation was earned in no small part to the films of Mike Leigh. Leigh has been mining a particular strain of movies for decades, uncovering the hypocrisy and deceptions, hopes and dreams of ordinary British people. In this sense Secrets And Lies, with its story of a woman who is reunited with her daughter after many years, is textbook Leigh - a rich, nuanced and moving study of indentity and family which is grounded in a very British sense of propriety. With uniformly excellent performances across the board from Brenda Blethyn, Timothy Spall and the rest of the cast, it's also a thoroughly compelling film. Leigh's latest film, Mr. Turner, also starred Timothy Spall in an altogether different role as the grumbling British painter, losing out at this year's Academy Awards for Best Picture to the admittedly stunning Birdman.