Riff-Raff

I first saw this film, drunk one Friday after a heavy nights drinking after work on a building site. I was then a bricklayer - a job I had done for over five years. Watching this film, it dawned on me that this was filmed in the part of London where i lived. I could truly relate to it and I would have sworn that the actors had themselves spent their lives working on sites it was so realistic. Go to any site and you will see at least one character who you could say directly related to a charater in this film. The safety aspect has been cleaned up a lot now but back then, sites were a dangerous place to work. Accidents were common and the end scenes were not in any way unrealistic.

The thing that did it for me was the portrayal of the working class of Britain. The sentiments were all there, the humour, the desparation, the sense of wanting to rise above the rest and the shattered dreams. They are all here. I would say that if anyone from abroad wanted to study the character of the British working class then they MUST see this film. It is tough, gritty and full of humour...a truly remarkable piece of film that is sadly neglected.

Buy it, Rent it, Steal it, Borrow it...whatever you do SEE IT!

This unpretentious British indie film is a rough diamond in the rough. It chronicles the lives of a handful of blue collar workers trying to survive in early 90's London. It's almost documentary in style and narrative, which lends a feeling of authenticity, which is helped also by fine performances all around. Shows the humor, frustration and dashed dreams in an unforgiving society, and it has heart. It is at times funny, heart wrenching, and touching. The accents are thick, so you may appreciate the subtitles that are on some versions. I found them distracting, so I put some tape over the bottom of the screen. I had to strain a few times to understand, but I don't think the subtitles were necessary. Well worth a watch.

Well what can I say? this film is appalling, the acting is putrid(particularly the Irish character who appears to forget her characters role mid way through the film) apart from Robert Carlyle as the Scottish character is quite good among other smaller big name roles who then made a name for themselves either prior or afterwards otherwise this movie is terrible with major plot-points not being revealed, unnecessary scenes, bad gags and bad script-writing as if they just improvised. Besides to that it was wrote in memory of some one if this was made in tribute of me, I must have really been hated or a terrible script- writer if this was the fruit of my labour! All in all I think my review is suitable for a film of this caliber Q.E.D

Riff-Raff is so realistic in its depiction of British working class conditions in the building industry of the time. Hard working lads living hard lives making poor money and working for shifty cost cutting employers. More than that though, Loach has filled the story with believable characters and has them speaking realistically with real local accents and absolutely zero political correctness.

Hats off to whoever was in charge of the casting. Standout performances from Robert Carlyle and Ricky Tomlinson but to be fair the entire cast were believable in their roles. There's very authentic feel to the film, almost like watching a documentary instead. Criminally Underrated.

This is a good film but what is great about it truly is the acting. I agree with the other poster here that the acting is phenomenal and the main actors in this movie truly shine as though they really are the characters they are playing in this film, 100% believable in their roles. Big congrats to the cast of this one for their great work. I only saw this by happenstance because my friend taped it on a cable channel years ago by mistake and we were looking for a tape to record a show while we were out and I said not to tape over this because it looked interesting, how about that? It's about the working class in England and seems to be very realistic about these hard working people who sometimes have very dangerous jobs they simply don't have any other choice of making a living. I am surprised never to have heard of this movie before but if you get a chance to watch it I would say check it out for sure if you are a fan of good acting :)