Valentine’s Day may be a rather silly holiday, but it is a wonderful excuse to celebrate love and romance in the movies. In that spirit, check back each day leading up to February 14th for a cinematic advent calendar of recommendations presented as mini-reviews.
Day 4: My Beautiful Launderette (1985)
Dir. Stephen Frears
Gordon Warnecke, Daniel Day-Lewis
Logline: In 1980s London, a young Pakistani man grapples with his sexuality, family, and career prospects, all made more complicated by the arrival of a gruff former schoolmate.
Why you should watch: I have to start with an admission—the first time I watched My Beautiful Launderette I didn’t like it. Whatever the reason, Stephen Frears’ film failed to connect with me. Thankfully, I got over myself and revisited it, and in that second and subsequent viewings, I have discovered a layered and sweepingly romantic queer love story that reinterprets much of what we expect from British film. While Frears is best known today for Oscar-bait biopics such as Florence Foster Jenkins (2016) and Victoria and Abdul (2017), the early stages of his career in the 1980s and 90s featured a director actively blowing up the conservative leanings of British filmmaking. His films featured stories dealing directly with sexuality, erasing the silly traditionalism that often sought to espouse that romance and uninhibited sex could not live together in cinematic storytelling.
Focusing primarily on young Pakistani man Omar (Warnecke), Frears and screenwriter Hanif Kureishi seamlessly intertwine Omar’s existential challenges about his future career, demanding family, and sexuality. They also place this against the backdrop of a viciously racist and xenophobic United Kingdom spurred on by the atrocious leadership of then Prime Minister, and real-life ‘Wicked Witch,’ Margaret Thatcher. That is where Johnny (Day-Lewis) enters the picture. Omar’s former schoolmate, Johnny is now mixed-up with an intensely white nationalist group of young men. Yet, somehow, Omar and Johnny crash together through Omar running a launderette where Johnny helps him out. The more time the two spend together the more they discover that this connection they share goes beyond some odd-couple friendship, and is instead a deeply sexual and affectionate place for both to explore their passions and desires.
Anchored by Warnecke and Day-Lewis’s tender yet searing performances, My Beautiful Launderette is that wonderful sort of film that is simultaneously deeply rooted in its time yet ageless. Frears and Kureishi offer a brutal indictment of violent racism and homophobia while also successfully making the film’s focus remain on Omar and Johnny. Whereas many queer romances fixate on torturing their characters, My Beautiful Laundrette offers a grounded yet adoring alternative.
Where you can watch: Streaming on Prime and Pluto TV. Rent on Apple, YouTube, and elsewhere.
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Devin McGrath-Conwell holds a B.A. in Film / English from Middlebury College and is currently pursuing an MFA in Screenwriting from Emerson College. His obsessions include all things horror, David Lynch, the darkest of satires, and Billy Joel. Devin’s writing has also appeared in publications such as Filmhounds Magazine, Film Cred, Horror Homeroom, and Cinema Scholars.
