01
Beautiful Thing
Why this pick
A tender, funny South London queer romance with the same intimate social realism: young desire emerges in cramped homes and estates shaped by family, money, and neighbourhood scrutiny.
A FILM WORTH A CLOSER LOOKTHE FEATURE PRESENTATION
MOVIE1985 1h 38m GBR
IF THIS ONE STAYED WITH YOU
Movies like
My Beautiful Laundrette
ComedyDrama
CINEHUNCH / THE NEXT FRAME
Keep the feeling.
SIMILAR PICKS / A PERSONAL CONNECTION
If you loved My Beautiful Laundrette, try these.
01
02
Sammy and Rosie Get Laid
Why this pick
Stephen Frears and Hanif Kureishi again combine sexual candour, political anger, immigrant family conflict, and unruly London energy in a deliberately messy, provocative relationship drama.
03
Raining Stones
Why this pick
Its rough-edged humour and urgent working-class realism echo Laundrette’s attention to economic survival, masculine pride, and the uneasy compromises people make for family.
04
East Is East
Why this pick
This sharp, warm family comedy-drama similarly explores British-Pakistani identity, generational conflict, and assimilation without flattening its characters into easy cultural symbols.
05
The Long Day Closes
Why this pick
More lyrical and inward-looking, but its precise British social texture, queer perspective, and bittersweet sense of memory make it a strong companion for Laundrette’s emotional honesty.
Finding the atmosphere, tension and little details that made this one stay with you.
Our curator needs a little longer. Please come back shortly.
No confident matches yet. Try our personal film finder.
01 / THE STORY
A little about the film.
Omar Ali is a young man living in Battersea in the Wandsworth area of South London, right by the railway station during the mid-1980s. His father, Hussein, once a famous left-wing British Pakistani journalist in Bombay, lives in London but hates Britain's society and its international politics. His dissatisfaction with the world and a family tragedy have led him to sink into alcoholism, so that Omar has to be his caregiver. By contrast, Omar's paternal uncle Nasser is a successful entrepreneur and an active member of the Pakistani community of London. Papa asks Nasser to give Omar a job and, after working for a brief time as a car washer in one of his uncle's garages, he is assigned the task of managing a run-down laundrette and turning it into a profitable business.
Showing saved details. Some information may be out of date.
02 / FACES IN THE FRAME
The people who bring it to life.
Gordon Warnecke
Omar Ali
Derrick Branche
Salim N. Ali
Souad Faress
Cherry N. Ali
Shirley Anne Field
Rachel
Garry Cooper
Squatter
Nisha Kapur
Nasir's Younger Daughter
Ram John Holder
Poet
Jonathan Moore
Gang Member #2