Synopsis
A Pakistani Briton renovates a rundown laundrette with his male lover while dealing with drama within his family, the local Pakistani community, and a persistent mob of skinheads.
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Cast
- Gordon WarneckeOmar Ali
- Daniel Day-LewisJohnny Burfoot
- Roshan SethHussein "Papa" Ali
- Saeed JaffreyNasser Ali
- Derrick BrancheSalim N. Ali
- Rita WolfTania N. Ali
- Souad FaressCherry N. Ali
- Shirley Anne FieldRachel
- Richard GrahamGenghis
- Garry CooperSquatter
Recommendations
- 100
TV Guide Magazine
Director Stephen Frears and screenwriter Hanif Kureishi have fashioned a wonderfully fresh examination of the political and racial climate of Margaret Thatcher's Britain. - 90
Variety
As always, director Stephen Frears does a superb job of work when given a good script, and this is a very good script. It’s peopled with interesting characters, allowing for a gallery of fine performances and situations. - 88
Slant Magazine
My Beautiful Laundrette is still fresh and remains a model case for creating moving, liberating cinema from an oppressive environment. It’s every bit the landmark gay film it deserves to be. - 80
Empire
At times puzzling due to the diverse panorama of subject matter, the film nevertheless corners touchy issues more than it flinches them. - 80
The New York Times
My Beautiful Laundrette has the broad scope and the easy pace that one associates with our best theatrical films. It puts its own truth above the fear of possibly offending someone. Without showing off, it has courage as well as artistry. A fascinating, eccentric, very personal movie. - 80
Los Angeles Times
Nothing prepares us adequately for the cool of his screenwriter, 29-year-old Hanif Kureishi, nor for the audacity, complexity and depth of his themes. - 80
Time Out
The strength of the film is its vision - cutting, compassionate and sometimes hilarious - of what it means to be Asian, and British, in Thatcher's Britain. - 80
CineVue
It’s the committed turn from Day-Lewis and Hanif Kureishi’s socially-astute, Oscar-nominated screenplay that manages to compensate for the film’s technical shortcomings, alongside the (then) landmark casual representation of a gay relationship on screen.
