Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

Ogosmith Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Frances Chung Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

snowyprecipice Starring a very young and dashing Daniel Day-Lewis and an relatively unknown but charming Gordon Warnecke, this is a movie set in the 1980s in the UK and deals with the issues of that time. It's a very subtle film that keeps you pondering what the characters are thinking and why they do the things they do. The two leads are very good-looking (together, too) and share a certain chemistry that's very at ease and comfortable, much like their relationship. No budding romance, they kind of just meld together and deal with the things that happen in the film.Mostly it deals with race issues and subtle homophobia. Omar (Warnecke) is smart and rather cunning, trying to make the business his uncle gives him successful. He employs a childhood friend and street punk (who he hasn't seen since he left school), Johnny (Day-Lewis) to help him run the business and deal with the riff-raff. The two have to deal with the expectations of Omar's family and the snide remarks Johnny's street "friends" make about him working for a Paki.(Also, some people who watched the film got confused about Tania's role in all this?? I thought it was obvious. She made advances on Omar but didn't get any reaction. Omar gets pressured to ask for her hand in marriage from his family, but nothing really comes of it. Johnny gets jealous and goes gallivanting with Tania to make Omar jealous. But all this happens in a very quiet way i.e. their intentions aren't clear unless you think about it. In the end Tania realizes they only have eyes for each other and she was kind of a pawn in their plans)I can't help but add that the two leads are super hot together. I like the secondary and tertiary characters too. The film feels very real and believable. Kind of slice of life but bigger.

markmuhl The film has undoubtedly the look and feel from the eighties but its central topic, the integration of immigrants into a new society, is very up-to-date, today maybe even more than in the days when the film was produced. The film covers many aspects in this field without really taking a stand, a fact that makes it especially valuable. Stephen Frears does a good job in showing that good integration is not an easy achievement. The movie shows us that it would be much more so if many immigrants were not so stupidly attached to their own traditions, if underprivileged locals did not feel so threatened by the business success of some immigrants and if locals and immigrants showed a greater respect for groups other than their own one. The Pakistani immigrant family in the center of the movie may look integrated but it is only the money from its successful business ventures that is doing the trick. Culturally they are living in a different world, especially the elder women. Probably the witty and intelligent daughter suffers most from this tense atmosphere. Grown up in a free and liberal Society she is expected to stick to the ancient traditions with little respect for female self-determination. Then there is the nephew and main protagonist who is given the chance by his uncle to run a bedraggled laundrette. This chance does not do his character any good. He becomes greedy and arrogant and has his English unemployed and homeless boyfriend work for him and makes him feel who is the one with the money. The uncle's English girlfriend is another interesting character. At first sight, she seems to be very opportunistic in simply looking for the man with the money. During the movie however, we get to know that she likes the man because he is the only one who ever cared for her. In the end after violent acts from the side of the Paki family, we can see her as a lady who hasn't thrown off all her feelings and is still vulnerable in her pride. Homosexuality and its acceptance by society is the second underlying topic of the movie. It can be seen that in those days gay love still had to be practiced in the dark but already was a strong force for the people in concern that no longer would be ignored. The film is also a historic document in the sense that it is showing the effects of Thatcherism on the lower social class. Social welfare was cut down in those days and the movie shows us a considerable amount of young working class people being homeless and overall on the losing end of society. Apart from all that content it is also a very young Daniel Day Lewis who is adding quality to the movie. His unique and fascinating way of gazing at people does not allow for any shallow feelings. In total, a work of substance. No wonder that this movie is one of the most renowned examples for the 80's label 'New British Cinema'.

SnoopyStyle Johnny Burfoot (Daniel Day-Lewis) is a squatter in rundown abandoned houses. Hussein "Papa" Ali gets his son Omar a job with his successful uncle Nasser at his car wash. Papa is a drunken disillusioned socialist reporter from Bombay. Omar gets hassled by a group of whites but he is saved by their leader Johnny who is his childhood friend. Nasser lets Omar manage the run down laundrette. Omar hires Johnny to work for him.Director Stephen Frears brings some of the new Pakistani flavor into his London movie. I don't think Gordon Warnecke is particularly nuanced and is not really leading man material. Frears has the great fortune of casting Daniel Day-Lewis. He's wonderful and so is Roshan Seth. The look is more or less TV production level. This has some very compelling scenes dealing with very serious issues.

Oslo Jargo (Bartok Kinski) There's an ugly "anti-English" white man streak in the film that paints foreign Hindus living in London as being "industrious, productive and discriminated against". I found it so insidiously stupid and contrived and wondered how anyone with a brain would not take this as simplistic Indian propaganda.It is vile and reprehensible to the maximum.Stick with David Lean films, since they don't ostracize British folks.Recommended:1957 The Bridge on the River Kwai 1962 Lawrence of Arabia