Movie

Meantime

1983 · 107 min

A quietly devastating and darkly funny slice of life that immerses you in the listless grind of unemployment and family friction.

Overview: A working-class family in London's East End is struggling to stay afloat during the recession under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's premiership. Only the mother Mavis is working; father Frank and the couple's two sons Colin, a timid, chronically shy individual and Mark, an outspoken, headstrong young man, are on the dole. This situation is contrasted by the presence of Mavis's sister Barbara, and her husband John, whose financial and social loftiness appears to be a comfortable facade over the unspoken soreness of a lackluster marriage.

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How it feels

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Tone: bleakstrength 2 of 3
melancholicstrength 2 of 3
satiricalstrength 1 of 3
tensestrength 1 of 3
Pacing: slow-burn, 1 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention: engaged, 3 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes: class
family
isolation
work
identity
Places: big city
home
Era: contemporary
Audience: adult
Form: ensemble
Content intensity: Gore none
Language strong
Violence mild
Sex mild

All scales, 0 to 10

Scales, 0 to 10
Scale	Value	0 to 10
Action	1
Horror	0
Humour	4
Realism	9
Romance	2
Tension	5
Darkness	7
Complexity	6
Emotional weight	7

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Where to watch in the UK

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Streaming data from JustWatch.All options on TMDB

Details

Genres: drama, comedy, tv movie
Directed by: Mike Leigh
Written by: Mike Leigh
Starring: Phil Daniels, Tim Roth, Jeffrey Robert, Pam Ferris, Gary Oldman, Marion Bailey, Alfred Molina, Tilly Vosburgh
Music: Andrew Dickson
Cinematography: Roger Pratt
Runtime: 107 min
Country: United Kingdom
Languages: English

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Meantime

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