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My Beautiful Laundrette
Directed by
Stephen Frears
R
1985
1h 38m
Drama
,
Comedy
,
and more
6.8
98%
74%
Add to Watchlist
An ambitious Pakistani Briton and his white boyfriend strive for success and hope when they open a glamorous laundromat.
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Where to Watch My Beautiful Laundrette
Kanopy
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Cast of My Beautiful Laundrette
Gordon Warnecke
Omar Ali
Daniel Day-Lewis
Johnny Burfoot
Roshan Seth
Hussein "Papa" Ali
Saeed Jaffrey
Nasser Ali
Derrick Branche
Salim N. Ali
Rita Wolf
Tania N. Ali
Souad Faress
Cherry N. Ali
Shirley Anne Field
Rachel
Richard Graham
Genghis
Garry Cooper
Squatter
Charu Bala Chokshi
Bilquis
Persis Maravala
Nasser's Elder Daughter
Nisha Kapur
Nasir's Younger Daughter
Walter Donohue
Dick O'Donnell
Neil Cunningham
Englishman
Gurdial Sira
Zaki
Stephen Marcus
Moose
Ram John Holder
Poet
Dawn Archibald
Gang Member #1
Jonathan Moore
Gang Member #2
Gerard Horan
Telephone Man
Bhasker Patel
Tariq
Badi Uzzaman
Dealer
Ayub Khan-Din
Student
Dulice Liecier
Girl in Disco
Chris Pitt
Kid #1
Kerryann White
Kid #2
Colin Campbell
Madame Butterfly Man
Sheila Chitnis
Zaki's Wife
Winston Graham
Jamaican #1
Dudley Thomas
Jamaican #2
Stephen Frears
Director
Hanif Kureishi
Writer
Tim Bevan
Producer
Sarah Radclyffe
Producer
My Beautiful Laundrette Ratings & Reviews
Charles London
March 24, 2025
This early Stephen Frears film from 1985 doesn't present a single theme but rather "washes" many together in an engaging hour and a half. The story revolves around an ambitious young English-born Pakistani man in London during a period of historical unemployment. In small to moderate doses, the movie touches on racism, neo-fascism, immigration, cultural pressures and barriers, sexual orientation, marital infidelity, alcholism, blue-collar crime, white-collar crime, illicit-drug smuggling, and well, you get the picture. I won't go into how some of these topics may or may not relate to 2020's America, but rather let you draw your own parallels. The movie is a little bit rough on the edges. It was shot with a small budget on 16mm film, and it employs a mixture of experienced and inexperienced actors. However, despite it's technical and budgetary shortcomings, it manages to gently, and humorously, launder a basket-full of topics. Side note: good chance to see a young Daniel Day-Lewis before he was famous.
Boston Globe
Jay Carr
An English film of astonishing freshness and emotional urgency.
Spokesman-Review (Washington)
Dan Webster
The themes are familiar, but writer Hanif Kuerishi refuses to simplify the issues and director Steven Frears uses an interesting visual style to explore another seamy side of life.
A Good Movie To Watch
Farah Cheded
Watching [My Beautiful Laundrette] smash taboos and break new ground in all the ways it does decades later, you can't help but lament that movies this clever and complex and radical in their focuses aren't more commonplace now.
The New Yorker
Pauline Kael
It's an enormous pleasure to see a movie that's really about something, and that doesn't lay on any syrupy coating to make the subject go down easily.
Stream on Demand
Sean Axmaker
It's a grungy yet dynamic portrait of race and prejudice in the Thatcher-era London of East Indian immigrants and neo-Nazi gangs.
Detroit Free Press
Catherine Rambeau
A brutally funny social comedy about the racial and social consequences of a Pakistani and an Englishman going into business and becoming lovers.
Film Frenzy
Matt Brunson
Daniel Day-Lewis enjoyed a breakout year stateside thanks to his contrasting performances here and as a supercilious dandy in A Room with a View.
Film Inquiry
Amanda Jane Stern
Not only is it a brilliant take on star-crossed lovers, it doesn't take the twists and turns you'd expect a story like this to take.
Washington Post
Paul Attanasio
"My Beautiful Laundrette" is quirky and fresh and ambitious and pretty much everything a movie should be, except good.
Antagony & Ecstasy
Tim Brayton
Would that all socially relevant cinematic documents were also such good movies!
HuffPost
Brandon Judell
Besides being revelatory in its depiction of a gay relationship, its respectful, yet unfawning, look at immigrants trying to make it in a new country is straight out of the headlines.
Los Angeles Times
Sheila Benson
It's Daniel Day Lewis, taut, intelligent, erotic, who is an emerging star.
TIME Magazine
Richard Corliss
Fast, bold, harsh and primitive like a prodigious student film with equal parts promise and threat.
Chicago Reader
Dave Kehr
This is a uniquely plausible portrait of life in England, yet its appeal isn't limited to social realism -- it also has a twist of buoyant fantasy and romance
Orlando Sentinel
Jay Boyar
This new British picture raises enough issues for a half-dozen more conventional movies. And though this approach makes for a structure that's a little shaky, the film somehow holds together.
Chicago Tribune
Sid Smith
Director Stephen Frears and screenwriter Hanif Kureishi are better at depicting a new milieu than in making an important or innovative statement.
Variety
Variety Staff
As always, director Stephen Frears does a superb job of work when given a good script, and this is a very good script.
Slant Magazine
Eric Henderson
While Personal Best and Making Love have faded into obscurity as The Celluloid Closet footnotes, My Beautiful Laundrette has become a benchmark in the 80s new queer cinema.
New York Times
Vincent Canby
A fascinating, eccentric, very personal movie.
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