150 Word Review: 'Withnail And I' (1987)

Boys will be boys

Photo: HandMade Films

Often described as a cult movie, Withnail and I is a funny and intimate example of loser cinema, a term I just made up. This is a nasty little comedy about two out-of-work actors drinking and smoking through the end of the swinging sixties in groovy London. Withnail is Richard E. Grant, a well-bred plonker who will do anything for a buzz, including drinking lighter fluid. The "I" from the title is Paul McGann, nameless, a high-strung laddie whose life would be more stable were it not for Withnail. The plot: a weekend bender goes pear-shaped. The inimitable Richard Griffiths is Uncle Monty, a wealthy gay fop mocked but given a moment of grace.

A current of homophobia runs through director Bruce Robinson’s Withnail and I, as does homoeroticism. Our boys are in an unhealthy relationship with each other, and they bicker viciously like a pair of married Noel Cowards.

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