Way ahead of its time.

I found the movie thoroughly unconvincing and boring. Maybe I was having a bad day. Perhaps you liked it thoroughly, and I would be the last to say you nay. De gustibus non est disputandum.

Interesting film but mainly for the early work of Daniel Day-Lewis. Also, the focus on the Pakistani immigrant experience in England.

Spillage in the back room 💦

This film depict people and social issues in 80s particularly in UK cities. Small, but it hold many problematic contexts within, and not entertaining. Very fresh Daniel Day-Lewis showed compelling performance as a main character. Seems like many British actors emerged in 80s-90s tackled with this type in the early stage of their career. and this is one of the pioneer.

This is a good film of its time, depicting a bleak picture for Indian immigrants in London, trying to fit in, in the big city. Its obviously set in the 1980s, when it was very much Thatchers Britain. The dialogue is quite frank at times, with racial slurs made by a local group of layabouts. It was certainly interesting to see Daniel Day-Lewis in one of his earlier roles - I'm not sure I would have recognised him, if I hadn't read up about the cast beforehand. There's some good dialogue present in the script, one line that particularly comes to mind being when the launderettes manager, the father, responds to someone saying 'I am a businessman, not a professional Pakistani!'. This is no big Hollywood type film at all - neither should it be but as a piece of social commentary its pretty effective. Yes I'd recommend it.

I saw it. Little memory of it, but glad it exists for sure

🏳️‍🌈 This 1985 British comedy-drama follows an ambitious Pakistani Briton and his white boyfriend who strive for success and hope when they open a glamorous laundromat in London during the Thatcher years. It is also a funny progressive social comedy that was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, and even though it has some serious problems with its dialogues, it is a very interesting story. This was one of Daniel Day-Lewis's first performances and you can already tell he was destined for great things. It's a movie ahead of its time, even with its abstract elements.

I have no idea what the point of the film is. Too many ideas, none properly explored and the central romance was ridiculous and unconvincing. Mess of a film but interesting to see south London captured on film in the mid 80s.

first watch today. even after all these years and all the mentions of this movie buried way back in my head, i had no idea what it was about. Daniel Day-Lewis was superb.

I saw the video in a library, and remembered the title from decades ago. So how good was the movie, and what was it supposed to be about? The description on the case made it sound intriguing. And the movie actually started out interestingly enough. Omar is a teenager who is part of a family from Pakistan in the Margaret Thatcher era. He is told by his alcoholic former journalist father to get a job and off the dole before he goes to college. Omar works at washing cars for an uncle who is involved in criminal rackets, before said uncle has him managing a grimy, low-class laundromat. Finding a white childhood friend who had fallen in with racist unemployed street punks, Omar hires him to help with the laundromat, as well as protect him from local thugs. A new wrinkle occurs when Omar and his friend suddenly become gay lovers who do a lot of French kissing. Presumably this was meant to be a social message movie, but a contrived storyline and characters we do not like or care about bring things down. The sudden emergence of the gay relationship is unconvincing and seems to have been put it for shock value rather than making a genuine point about homosexuality (some gay reviewers were unhappy with this movie). Also the uncle's success came from being in the rackets rather than hard work and diligence. Is the point of the movie that Pakistani immigrants are fundamentally crooked, or immigrants cannot make it in Britain through honest work? Nobody in this movie comes across in a good light-including the people who made the movie. How this movie has been well-regarded is anybody's guess.

Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnngggggg

Ambitious in its time for tackling issues that were very much still under the purview of social taboos (homosexuality and bisexuality while AIDS dominated headlines, immigrant communities, class controversy, generational conflict, social activism, and the particular social ills of the Thatcher era), but it sets its sights too high in trying to go after so many different themes. The relationship between Warnecke's Omar and Day-Lewis's Johnny, probably the single most prominent focus of the film; there is virtually no progression or nuance to their romance, they are just all of a sudden romantically intertwined with very little in the way of setup or establishment, and the story tries to hoist a reformed fascist backstory onto Johnny without its due diligence. Much of the film feels rushed or poorly explored, but it is hard to avoid some of the foresight that the film would have regarding later works - the particular relationship between minority, disadvantaged characters would find greater intelligence and heart in Moonlight, while the peculiarities of generational, internationally-based wealth and the conflicts that result with tradition saw a more focused (and with a more wholesome, crowd-pleasing tone) in Crazy Rich Asians, both of which received tremendous popular acclaim. Some of the missteps can be forgiven in light of its ambition and prescience, but there are clear weaknesses in design that make it more of a 'stepping-stone' film. I do love the destruction of the car while laundromat music plays, though. (3/5)

Structure of storyline and quality of cintematography (prefacing later works of director Stephen Frears) are pluses; uneven quality of acting is a minus; notable for early Daniel Day-Lewis of course

The pacing is off, and the film ultimately goes nowhere with the potential it has for a good story.

A Pakistani family living in London struggle to combat the social struggle of integration. Battling against sexuality and identity, the protagonists path follows a trail of uncertainty as events unfold through the confrontation of hardship.

A nuanced critique of Thatcherism through the household disorders of a Pakistani family living in 1980's London with the titular establishment used as a metaphor for pacifism of the eastern and western communities.

Good independent movie of the time with a pretty decent cast. The dialogue writing was left wanting but the script was powerful and socially pertinent. Well thought out story.

This has a reputation as being an important film and I'm sure it was a pretty revolutionary in 1985 for showing a gay interracial relationship - but it hasn't aged fantastically well. It's rather clunky and on-the-nose about the political and social points it's trying to make. The acting is not universally great although there are good performances from Roshan Seth and Saeed Jaffrey. It's notable for being Daniel Day-Lewis' first major performance and it's a decent start from him but you probably wouldn't guess he was four years away from winning an Oscar.

It has raised some issues but it was not that loud about them and it the end it ws a mildy okay movie.To be honest when I saw the reviews I thought this was going to be a fantastic film,but it never worked for me.I didn't sympathise with anyone of the characters and I didn't care for most of their struggles.Daniel Day-Lewis though,managed to raise the bar in this one."My beautiful laundrette" is overrated if you ask me.