My Beautiful Laundrette
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Movie Reviews of My Beautiful Laundrette
Movie Review: STUPENDOUSLY ENJOYABLE
Summary: 5 Stars
Originally intended only as a television feature film, MBL is one of the quietest but stirring movies you will see. The story is about one Pakistani man (Warnecke) and a long time Englishman friend (Day-Lewis) who both live on the wrong side of the tracks as they grope for success in a world replete with multiple forms of discrimination -- racism, sexism, groupism, homophobia, cultural elitism, snobbery, reverse colonialism, neocolonialism and fascism -- which they successfully grapple and topple in the form of their launderette with the power of economic enterprise.
These squabbling goblins are left to each others excesses as economic success lifts them up and out of these, but many questions remain: will they subsist? Would others succeed; What does luck have to do with it?
Kureshi had [upset] all groups who find themselves part of this smashing satire, prime among them the identity conscious confused second/third generation subcontinental British kids, the same contingency that staunchly supported the Rushdie fatwa (the kind also sharply profiled in "My son, the fanatic").
Brilliant.
Movie Review: True to its name, a beautiful film
Summary: 5 Stars
I've seen few films with such intensity, humour and heartache all rolled into one. The scenes flowed onto each other seamlessly, the plot complex yet perfectly led, and the Acting was just superb.Daniel Day Lewis was unforgettable as the rough street punk Johnny, while Gordon Warnecke was equally engaging as Omar, the Pakistani boy with big ambitions. Another stand-out was Roshan Seth, playing a drunken disgruntled Pakistani father, with no hope, no future, and little life left in his alcohol weakened body. Seth stole the scene wherever he appeared, and not just because of the hair, seriously.
The fact that this film is partly about the relationship between two men had absolutely no influence on me as an audience. To the people watching, it is as natural to them as it is for the two main characters on the silver screen.
At times, it is heartbreaking to watch the hatred and misunderstanding between two races living on the same land. But what do 2 boys with a beautiful laundrette care anyway, for them, each day is a brand new day isn't it?
Movie Review: My Beautiful Laundrette
Summary: 5 Stars
Originally made for the BBC, and scripted by half-Pakistani writer Hanif Kureishi, Frears's endearing, intelligent "Laundrette" is a dramatic and often humorous study of bigotry, sexuality, and social mobility in Thatcher-era Britain. Warnecke and Day-Lewis are convincing as distinct social types in eighties London--the striving immigrant under pressure to acculturate on one hand and marry a family acquaintance on the other; and the skinhead who turns on his mates to pursue a friendship with a loathsome "Paki." Coaxing fine support from his multiracial cast, Frears handles it all with tenderness, insight, and unpredictable tonal shifts.Movie Review: Following the traces of Werner Fassbinder!
Summary: 5 Stars
Stephen Frears paid a felt tribute in Fassbinder' s memory through this picture. This launderette is an authentic micro cosmos that allowed to join two well opposite personalities so different in attitudes and particular ambitions.
Somehow S.F. continues exploring the advanced roads initiated by his predecessor; and even Frears lacks of the human touch that became a true landmark in Rainer, he achieves a mature film that focuses and handles the complex ambiguity of this couple in London.
Movie Review: A winner
Summary: 5 Stars
A Pakistani (Gordon Warnecke) in England befriends a Briton (Daniel Day-Lewis) and together, despite their racial differences, open up a laundrette. The two young men become lovers, which is kept secret from everyone else. Warnecke's father wants him to go to college, which adds to his pressures, but that is nothing compared to the racial tensions brought about by the anti-Pakistan street gangs that both boys face together. Extremely well acted with an intelligent script, despite being rather depressing.