Withnail & I

1987 – UK – 108 min. – colour
Directors: Bruce Robinson
Richard E. Grant, Paul McGann, Richard Griffiths,
Michael Elphick
One of the funniest and most original British films in the second half of the 20th century; Withnail & I is one of the few cult films that genuinely deserves its status. Set at the grey, scabby end of the 1960s, the film is a marvellous character study of two ‘resting’ (i.e. unemployed and unemployable) actors whose bitterness and frustrated hopes mirror the era’s soiled, run-down glory. Few films have explored bitterness and filth with more acidic wit, and few actors have given more exuberantly poisonous performances than the leading players