Movie Review: My Beautiful Laundrette

Wow. What can I say? For once, a queer movie where the gayness was not a detriment, not a foible. No one ends up dead because they are gay. No one is self-loathing because they like men. In fact, one character improves himself by his own acceptance. There are no drag queens or bars or men who swish into very shot.

And this was made in 1986? Back when Reagan was doing his best to deny that gay people existed? Impressive.

My Beautiful Laundrette is an interesting, rare piece of indie filmmaking. It's the starting point for Stephen Frears, who later create the great Dangerous Laisons and Daniel Day-Lewis prior to his Oscar turn in My Left Foot.

As for Day-Lewis, he's reduced to a secondary role, which is interesting. The dude is so intense with his energy, you watch him instead of the leads. You can see the future. And you can see it in every film since. Maybe it's because he's Irish. They aren't exactly known as a subtle people.

But the film does lack a certain guidance. It introduces it's credits in spin cycle, complete with bubbling noises, hinting it as a comedy, but it's far from it. It's very dramatic, but the depth is not moving, with no deep themes about changing worlds or changing minds. It's best defined as a character study. You have a character and watch what happens. It's not long enough that it becomes boring.

I actually recommend it for anyone into curio movies, but really, you aren't missing much.

And a Laundrette? I guess in the UK, that's what we would call a Laundromat. Those Brits. How they mangle English, no?

That's a joke, people.