Pansy (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), protagonist of Mike Leigh’s “Hard Truths,” opening Friday in Houston, is not the first postmenopausal cinematic antiheroine to ask to speak to a manager. But she is — apologies to Frances McDormand’s career — the most fascinating.

The co-stars, who first played sisters in a 1993 Mike Leigh play, explain the iconoclastic director's unique method and how 'Hard Truths' took shape.

The director's latest misanthropic drama, following such films as "Bleak Moments" and "Naked," is a puckeringly sour delight, socked over by Marianne Jean-Baptiste.

Moviefone speaks with director Mike Leigh, Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Michele Austin about 'Hard Truths'. For me, films come from life, Leigh said.

It’s amazing watching Mike Leigh’s film 'Hard Truths,' starring the extraordinary Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Michele Austin, in an American theater.

In partnership with his actors, Leigh excavates and displays the most vulnerable emotions and experiences a person can have, his films slowly building to cathartic crescendos, with glimmers of hope and salvation shining through.

Jean-Baptiste plays Pansy, a woman who suffers no fools, pushing everything around her away, but also confronting deeply-held family issues.

ABC News’ Linsey Davis talks to Marianne Jean-Baptiste about her new movie “Hard Truths” and working without a defined script.

Marianne Jean-Baptiste gives an Oscar-caliber performance as a bitter angry woman who strikes out at everyone she encounters in this funny, painfully dramatic slice-of-life from veteran English director Mike Leigh.