True Leigh-heads know that “another Mike Leigh movie starring Marianne Jean-Baptiste” should be the only seven words you need to hear to get yourself to the theater… Jean-Baptiste’s Pansy doesn’t have a bad life, objectively speaking: She lives in modest but stable comfort with her husband and grown son in suburban London, and since her mother’s death a few years earlier, her warm, loving sister Chantelle (a marvelous Michele Austin) is always reaching out to her and inviting her on outings. But Pansy insists on living in a prison built brick by brick from her own long-simmering resentment and (never entirely explained) sense of permanent rage. Just 97 minutes long, Hard Truths is a deceptively slight movie that can barely contain its titanic central performance. – Slate.com
“It’s certainly a tour-de-force triumph for Jean-Baptiste who is on fire in every scene and gives a fearless performance that is one for the ages.” – San Jose Mercury News

“Spare and wrenching gem” TheWrap