Review of My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) by Anna B — 08 Aug 2007

In high school, a group of gay kids and gay-friendly-ish kids had a few "gay movie nights" at my house. We watched movies like Priscilla Queen of the Desert, The Trip (blaugh!), A Very Natural Thing, and this gem: My Beautiful Laundrette.

The first time I watched it, I couldn't really pay attention to the details, seeing as it was a movie night filled with a few too many spazzes; but, I watched it again the next day, and then I watched it over, and over, and over.

It was so different from the other movies we watched those nights in that the queerness in the film didn't make them more vulnerable, yet at the same time did not try to play off their sexuality in a liberal sense of the term "natural" or rather "gay but just like straight sexuality".

Maybe that's not clear. It's almost more libidinal than sexual. Also, the discussion of the complexity of race and class is so fucking poignant. Imagine what this film meant when it came out in 1986 with Thatcher in office and the specter of communism still looming over Europe.

It's interesting how Kureishi does not simply make the fascist skinheads the root of all the problems. The political situation, the lives of these characters, and much more are written in to portray the issue of race as convoluted and yet obvious as it is in real, social life.

I would say it does the same with sexuality, only no one ever really finds out about their relationship and yet on accident. Then again, when they (Tanya and her father) do find out, they are not driven into a violent rage that disrupts Johnny and Omar, rather it strikes a blow to these straight people and almost makes them fear the two men.

By the way, the movie is beyond hot. As I said, the libidinal force overpowers any ploy that could try to complicate or overdramatize their story into a cheesy coming-out film (not all of these films are cheesy, but there sure is a high prevalence).

Anyway, it's amazing how Hanif Kureishi can fit postcoloniality, queerness, (post-)Marxism, and much more into one text and not bore you to death. When you take a look at his other works (The Buddha of Suburbia, sammy and Rosie Get Laid, etc.

) you can see that he has a striking ability to create extremely dense texts. Watch and read his works over and over agin. You'll find you can always read the text in a way that is pertinent to society and your own life, while beautifully answering nothing.