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A slow-burning depiction of economic degradation in Thatcher’s England, Mike Leigh’s Meantime is the culmination of the writer-director’s pioneering work in television. Unemployment is rampant in London’s working-class East End, where a middle-aged couple and their two sons languish in a claustrophobic public-housing flat. As the brothers (Phil Daniels and Tim Roth) grow increasingly disaffected, Leigh punctuates the grinding boredom of their daily existence with tense encounters, including with a priggish aunt (Marion Bailey) who has managed to become middle-class and a blithering skinhead on the verge of psychosis (a scene-stealing Gary Oldman, in his first major role). Informed by Leigh’s now trademark improvisational process and propelled by the lurching rhythms of its Beckett-like dialogue, Meantime is an unrelenting, often blisteringly funny look at life on the dole.
Original Release
12/01/1983
US Release
07/23/1986
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Cast
Name | Character |
---|
Marion Bailey | Barbara |
Phil Daniels | Mark |
Tim Roth | Colin |
Pam Ferris | Mavis |
Jeffrey Robert | Frank |
Alfred Molina | John |
Gary Oldman | Coxy |
Tilly Vosburgh | Hayley / Haley |
Paul Daly | Rusty |
Leila Bertrand | Hayley's Friend |
Directors
Writers
Cast
Name | Character |
---|
Marion Bailey | Barbara |
Phil Daniels | Mark |
Tim Roth | Colin |
Pam Ferris | Mavis |
Jeffrey Robert | Frank |
Alfred Molina | John |
Gary Oldman | Coxy |
Tilly Vosburgh | Hayley / Haley |
Paul Daly | Rusty |
Leila Bertrand | Hayley's Friend |
Peter Wight | Estate Manager |
Eileen Davies | Unemployment Benefit Clerk |
Herbert Norville | Man in Pub |
Brian Hoskin | Barman |
Producers
Name | Role |
---|
Graham Benson | Producer |