A triple landmark movie, historically significant in its depiction of homosexuality, racial diversity and Thatcher-era London, My Beautiful Laundrette was also a quintuple breakthrough for the director Stephen Frears, the writer Hanif Kureishi, the actor Daniel Day-Lewis, the composer Hans Zimmer and the production house Working Title. That’s quite the legacy.
Day-Lewis beat Gary Oldman, Tim Roth and, amazingly, Kenneth Branagh to the role of Johnny, a National Front punk who falls for Omar (Gordon Warnecke), a young Pakistani-British man. Together they transform a run-down launderette into “a jewel in the jacksie of south London”.
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Restored and rereleased to “celebrate its 40th spin cycle”, the film blends realism and pizzazz with the assuredness for which Frears would become known, Day-Lewis deliberately channelling Clint Eastwood in a turn of charismatic stillness. Four decades on, the jewel still glistens.
★★★★★
15, 97min
In selected cinemas
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