Far more hopeless and disenfranchising than any dystopic sci-fi flick at its most muck and mired could be, Mike Leigh’s 1984 drama Meantime is a cold and cruel look at a few days in the life of a family on the dole at the height of Thatcher’s Britain. Barely living in a squalid public-housing flat that is literally falling apart, put-upon mother Mavis (Pam Ferris) is the only one in the house with a job, while feckless father Frank (Jeff Robert) and sons Colin (Tim Roth) and Mark (Phil Daniels) mostly lounge about watching television, occasionally popping around to the pub to score drinks off pals and bum a few smokes while doing it. [ . . . ] Read complete review at Fowler’s Flix