Lovesusti
The Worst Film Ever
Janae Milner
Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.
Billy Ollie
Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
miss_lady_ice-853-608700
Maybe it's the fact that the film's very British and very eighties but how can this possibly score 6.9 whereas tripe like Good Will Hunting gets 8? Sometimes I despair at the reviewers on here.Anyway, back to the film. Omar (Gordon Warnecke) is a young Asian guy who goes to work for his Thatcherite uncle (Saeed Jaffrey). His ambition is to renovate his uncle's run-down laundrette. He gets in his white mate Johnny (Daniel Day Lewis) to give him a hand and the two guys fall in love.My Beautiful Laundrette completely encapsulates the zeitgeist of 1980's Britain, tackling everything from racial tension, immigration, generation differences, class differences, Thatcherism and homosexuality. I say 'tackle'- it's presented but the viewer is allowed to make their own minds up. This is primarily a coming-of-age film and on that level it can appeal to everyone.As for the arguments that you can only like this film if you fit into one of the criteria portrayed here or the period it was set in, they're completely ridiculous. So, we can only like Schindler's List if we're a Nazi or a Jew and were alive in the forties? Come on people. The only criteria I fit in with this film is that I live in Britain- not even London, where the film's set.What a lot of people dislike about the film is that it portrays a lot of the tensions happening in Britain but it does so on a very human level. No character is just a victim of the state. It's a light romantic comedy that lets us see the violence and racism but doesn't linger, making it more powerful when things do happen.As for the relationship between Omar and Johnny, it's portrayed very tenderly (and very sexily, though tasteful). What is rare for a 'gay film'- a label given to any film that has gay characters in- is that the characters aren't tortured over their sexuality or punished. It's just portrayed as a normal loving relationship and the two actors- both straight- are very convincing.Now Daniel Day Lewis has bagged his third Oscar, breaking the record for Best Actor, how does he fare in a very early film in his career? I really enjoyed his performance- you can see there's something about him, even at this age. His facial structure is outstanding- he looks very striking. And there's none of the mannerisms you might expect from an actor destined to do well. He comes across as a fresh talent- which he was.
TheLurkingFox
My Beautiful Laundrette is one of the most over-hyped movies I've ever seen. But then again there's an explanation: As one of the first ever real gay-themed movies, it was praised just for the very fact it talked about the Pakistani community and had a gay aspect. Two things that just weren't done before. But does it make it a good movie? No. It's long, boring, difficult to understand because it jumps from scene to scene without ever really settling on anything, and there are two many characters introduced at the same time (most with mind-numbingly boring story lines), too many things that are implied but never really said out loud. It could be "subtle" but it just ends up being "confusing". In the end, it's a movie that wants to be about being gay, but also about being Pakistani in London, but also about being a white thug / homeless young guy in 80s London, but also about being a young closeted guy, and also about a guy turning an old business into a new shiny one, while also being about drug dealers, and about standing up to your community for love (a la Romeo and Juliette). In short, the film never knows what it wants to be about, and all is lost. I think most people who love this movie are the people who saw it when it had just come out and THEY had just come out as well (or were about to, or something) - I'm sure there's a very emotional connection to this movie for a lot of people, that is completely unrelated to the actual film's worth.
Tim Kidner
So says Saeed Jaffrey, easily one of the most recognisable Indian actors, at the film's start and sets the tone for this early Film 4 offering from 1985 as the wheeler-dealer uncle, and who typified Thatcherism's era of entrepreneurial immigrants.Radio Times awards a rare five stars for this provocative and ground- breaking film from the now hugely successful director, now, of Stephen Frears and of course, for Daniel Day Lewis, it might have been his last, presumably such a contentious issue inter-racial gay sex would have been seen (and still viewed as), had he not been both brave AND very good.This was just Frear's second feature film and whilst today the production values lag, many of the scenes are (necessarily?) contrived and the acting variable, it still says a lot. Lest we forget, launderettes were actually in wide existence then, romanticised by jeans adverts and featuring regularly in TV soap Eastenders. If that last bit sounds pedantic, Eastenders itself was seen as ground-breaking and immensely popular, with ratings in the 10s of millions.Saeed's hypocritical (he has a white mistress) Nasser only hands over the laundrette to his nephew (Omar) because he's too lazy to run it himself and it's a thorn in his side. Omar, being one of Thatcher's mass army of 3 million unemployed takes to the challenge and equally unemployed white, former National Front member Johnny (Day-Lewis), a schoolfriend of Omar's get drafted in to help refit the run-down laundrette and to turn it into a Palace full of washing machines.As you can imagine, Johnny's past friends find much to dislike about the company he now keeps, especially as he's been to prison for his past activities and now is not only only cohorting with the Front's seen enemy but having unbridled, active sex with one who is the same sex. Issues around the pressure for Omar to get married, by arrangement are very relevant, both as in being Pakistani and homosexual.For my money, there are just too many small characters, doing little things that we never see again; they do not contribute to the film and if anything, dissolve its strengths. I'm also not keen on Gordon Warnecke's (Omar) performance, his monosyllabic recital of his lines show no depth. Omar may actually have spoken like that but it fails to convince.The romance element is boosted by the way that the refurbished laundrette is to be launched as a dreamy magical palace, with a razzle- dazzle showbiz look and can be seen as the aspiration for people who have little to make a life for themselves.I first saw My Beautiful Laundrette about when it was released and knew friends in the gay community - and have watched the DVD a couple of times since. Those friends saw it more of a championing beacon to their cause and lifestyle and less of a political and economic barometer. Almost no such films were made almost thirty years ago and whilst I'm sure many did just see it as a pro-gay drama, that it was (and remains) a good film is a huge bonus.
blanche-2
"My Beautiful Laundrette," released in 1985, is many things: a study of Britain in the '80s, a class story, the story of Pakistanis trying to assimilate, and a gay love story. Somehow it succeeds on all levels.Omar (Gordon Warnecke) is a young Pakistani living in England and caring for his alcoholic, very ill father Hussein (Roshan Seth), once an important journalist whose left leanings haven't gone over very well in Britain. His wife committed suicide by throwing herself onto the train tracks outside of their home. Hussein intends for Omar to go to college, but in the meantime, he wants his brother Nasser (Saeed Jaffrey), who runs many businesses with his right hand man Salim (Derrick Branche), to give Omar a job.Omar is ambitious and eventually asks his uncle to let him run the filthy, graffiti-ridden laundrette and make it profitable. Omar sees an old school friend, Johnny (Daniel Day-Lewis) on the street; Johnny has fallen in with a neo-Nazi group. However, the two reconnect, and Omar convinces Johnny to work with him at the laundrette. They rip off Salim during a drug deal to get money and make the place quite fancy. And Johnny has no compunction about seducing Omar.One of the things that makes this film fascinating is the treatment of the gay theme, which is not really treated as a theme at all but merely as information about these two young men. Omar doesn't "come out" to his family, no one catches them in the act and is shocked, no one beats them up because they're gay, no one is killed because he's gay, and no one commits suicide because of it. If Omar doesn't tell his family, it's because it's none of their business. He's under pressure to get married, but he doesn't do it. What he will do in the future, obviously, is unknown, but he'll risk losing Johnny so he may never give into the pressure.The story is more about people living in a country that isn't their own and attempting to "make it," which was the promise of the '80s under Thatcher, and it's about a class system that looks down on poor whites like Johnny. It's also about racial hatred and the violence it causes.The film is peppered with interesting characters: Nasser's glamorous white mistress (Shirley Anne Field), Nasser's daughter Tania (Rita Wolf), and the volatile Salim.The film is beautifully photographed, particularly in the romantic scenes...Johnny kissing Omar in the alley is but one example.The acting --- well, what can be said about acting where Daniel Day-Lewis has a supporting role? It's bound to be good! This film was released on the same day as A Room with a View, and when critics saw Day-Lewis in two such different roles, they were mightily impressed. With his weird hair and low-class accent, Day-Lewis is a likable Johnny, unashamed of his sexuality and trying to get away from a life of violence. The handsome Warnecke is a sympathetic Omar, and Jaffrey and Seth give vivid portraits of two diametrically opposite brothers, one interested in money and flaunting it, the other a beaten-down, sick man of principle. Rita Wolf is a feisty Tania, and Shirley Anne Field is delightful as Rachel.Excellent film that I'm sure resonates even more if you're British or, better yet, an immigrant in Britain. Excellently directed by Stephen Frears.
