Meantime
Meantime
•
1h 47m
Directed by Mike Leigh • 1984 • United Kingdom
Starring Tim Roth, Phil Daniels, Gary Oldman
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.
Up Next in Meantime
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Mike Leigh with Jarvis Cocker on MEAN...
Musician Jarvis Cocker asks director Mike Leigh about his distinctive filmmaking process in this interview, recorded in 2016.
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Marion Bailey and Amy Raphael on MEAN...
In this interview, recorded in 2017, writer Amy Raphael interviews actor Marion Bailey about creating the character of Auntie Barbara for MEANTIME.
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Tim Roth on MEANTIME
Actor Tim Roth talks about his experiences making MEANTIME in this 2007 interview.