Meantime (1983)

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1. 

   ChesterRoy

   Seeing Tim Roth, Alfred Molina & Gary Oldman all in this low budget TV movie is an incredible experience. 4 years 3 months ago
2. 

   Blocho

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXN2v5pkNWw 8 months 2 weeks ago
3. 

   Siskoid

   What happens to the working class when there's no work? Mike Leigh's Meantime is a fairly bleak portraiture of a particular council estate family in Thatcher's Britain, faffing about, shouting at each other, and generally hurting each other's feelings because there's nothing else to do. Notable for very early work by Tim Roth (as a mentally challenged young man) and a seemingly fully-formed Gary Oldman (as a twitchy, demented skinhead), what is most striking about the film is the depth of the characterization. The most sympathetic characters are actually quite condescending and patronizing; they mean well, but also get something out of it, and that thing may be multiple things layered in. The toxic family environment is fueled by despair, and if you scratch at the anger, you'll find love there, and a certain rejection of society that could be misinterpreted (and is). Leigh sometimes follows leads into ancillary characters' lives to what seems like dead ends, and the music might seem only strangely suited to the material, but the more I think about the film, the more of its subtleties I grasp, even in the elements I at first thought were wonky. 3 years 8 months ago

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