Director Mike Leigh presents another slice-of-life drama--this time focusing on a family of acerbic, terminally unemployed working-class Britons languishing in their East End council house. Frank (Jeff Robert) and Mavis (Pam Ferris) are the endlessly bickering parents of Mark (Phil Daniels) and Colin (Tim Roth). Colin is a slow-witted teenager who strikes up a disturbing friendship with Coxy (Gary Oldman), a local neo-Nazi. His aunt Barbara (Marion Bailey) tries to lure him out of his shell by hiring him to help her wallpaper her new house. Unfortunately, Mark becomes jealous over this attention shown to his younger brother, triggering a series of taunts that convince Colin into rejecting his aunt s friendly offer. Not content in her own marriage to John (Alfred Molina), Barbara turns to the bottle to help dilute her inner pain. As the days wear on, the hopelessness of each individual s lives begins to catch up with them. As is the case with most of Leigh s films from the late 1980s (HIGH HOPES, LIFE IS SWEET), there is a bittersweet, comic quality to the story that keeps it from becoming completely pessimistic. This exceptional film also benefits from excellent performances by Bailey, Daniels, Oldman, and especially Roth.