MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE is a watchable film (and I’m sure back in the mid-1980’s it was a fresher idea), but overall, it left me flat. Maybe if I knew more about Thatcher-era London I would have enjoyed it more but based on the Criterion Collection disc cover and the various things I’d heard about the film over the years, I was expecting the romantic relationship between Omar and Johnny to be the main focus of the film. Instead, to me, it felt like Omar’s family was the main focus, the tension between the street punks and well, everybody to be second and finally, Omar and Johnny’s relationship third. Also, I didn’t get any sexual chemistry between the two main actors.
Solid acting, a television set behind a sofa, meddling pace, unimpressive sets and locations that kinda gave off a made-for-TV vibe, too small of a cast, multiple scenes out on the street but without any feel of it being a real street with random citizens walking around, multiple unsympathetic characters (including our two heroes, I especially felt bad for the little girl they terrorized while they were stealing her family's electronics), 1980's fashions, a SOME LIKE IT HOT poster, another poster for a movie that looks like it is called LAILA (which there is a movie from 1984 with that name), a very odd placement of a traffic light, a character with a face tattoo (not sure what the historic timeline is on cinematic face tattoos), non-threatening street punks, a woman in jeans and a purple shirt playing a video arcade machine but then when a fight breaks out it's a different woman in jeans and a purple shirt, a weird water(?) sound effect that was annoying, a "turf accountant" which I had to Google. It's the same as a betting hall, like for horse races.
MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE is historically interesting and I’m glad it was made (and I'm glad I watched it), but the entire thing felt undercooked to me. I would like to see a remake.
