My Beautiful Laundrette
1985
***
Director: Stephen Frears
Cast: Saeed Jaffrey, Roshan Seth, Daniel Day-Lewis, Gordon Warnecke, Shirley Anne Field, Derrick Branche, Rita Wolf, Souad Faress, Richard Graham, Stephen Marcus
Omar, a young British Pakistani man, takes over his uncle's laundromat and plans to renovate and operate it with Johnny, his former school friend and lover. Stephen Frears' iconic comedy drama provides a nice time capsule of Thatcher-era Britain and it features some lovely performances, including Daniel Day-Lewis in a breakthrough role. However, Hanif Kureishi's script attempts to tackle a few too many topics in the 97 minutes: racism, unemployment, socialism vs. capitalism, arranged marriage, gay love, drug trafficking, etc.
