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CAREER GIRLS

Starring Katrin Cartlidge, Lynda Steadman

Director Mike Leigh

Opens Aug. 8

Think Romy and Michele with a brain. In Leigh's follow-up to Secrets & Lies, two 30-year-old university misfits-turned-working women (Steadman and Breaking the Waves' Cartlidge) spend a weekend reminiscing about their school days — and bumping into their former classmates. ''One guy who is 30 said to me, 'All the people that I was in college with who were anarchists and hippies and beatniks and general rogues are now all estate agents,''' says Leigh, who also wrote the script. ''What are they like when you peel away the surface?'' The flashback-filled Girls — which features a jazz score cocomposed by Secrets star Marianne Jean-Baptiste plus '80s tunes by the Cure — sounds like a comedic departure for Leigh. ''I'm not addressing an issue in the same way that I [did] in Secrets & Lies,'' the director says. ''But it's got a bit of melancholy in it as well. It is, after all, a Mike Leigh film.'' UPSIDE Leigh has certainly proved himself adept at showcasing unknowns. DOWNSIDE Unknowns are unknown.


Posted May 16, 1997 | Published in issue #379 May 16, 1997 | Order Article Reprints