Cult British Cinema
by MarleneMcFly | created - 16 May 2011 | updated - 11 Mar 2012 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. A Room for Romeo Brass (1999)
R | 90 min | Comedy, Drama
After stopping 12 y.o. Romeo and Gavin from being beaten up, Morell drives them home and meets Romeo's adult sister and falls in love. The boys "help" him in his pursuit.
Director: Shane Meadows | Stars: Martin Arrowsmith, Dave Blant, Darren Campbell, Paddy Considine
Votes: 6,171 | Gross: $0.02M
2. Withnail & I (1987)
R | 107 min | Comedy, Drama
In 1969, two substance-abusing, unemployed actors retreat to the countryside for a holiday that proves disastrous.
Director: Bruce Robinson | Stars: Richard E. Grant, Paul McGann, Richard Griffiths, Ralph Brown
Votes: 47,887 | Gross: $1.54M
3. Life of Brian (1979)
R | 94 min | Comedy
Born on the original Christmas in the stable next door to Jesus Christ, Brian of Nazareth spends his life being mistaken for a messiah.
Director: Terry Jones | Stars: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam
Votes: 421,782 | Gross: $20.05M
4. Time Bandits (1981)
PG | 110 min | Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy
A young boy accidentally joins a band of time travelling dwarves, as they jump from era to era looking for treasure to steal.
Director: Terry Gilliam | Stars: Sean Connery, Shelley Duvall, John Cleese, Katherine Helmond
Votes: 68,326 | Gross: $42.37M
5. 1984 (1984)
R | 113 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
In a totalitarian future society, a man, whose daily work is re-writing history, tries to rebel by falling in love.
Director: Michael Radford | Stars: John Hurt, Richard Burton, Suzanna Hamilton, Cyril Cusack
Votes: 78,966 | Gross: $8.40M
6. 10 Rillington Place (1971)
GP | 111 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
What happened to the women at 10 Rillington Place? The story of British serial killer John Christie, who committed most or all of his crimes in the titular terraced house, and the miscarriage of justice involving Timothy Evans.
Director: Richard Fleischer | Stars: Richard Attenborough, Judy Geeson, John Hurt, Pat Heywood
Votes: 9,774
7. Brothers of the Head (2005)
R | 93 min | Drama, Music
In the 1970s a music promoter plucks Siamese twins from obscurity and grooms them into a freakish rock'n'roll act. A dark tale of sex, strangeness and rock music.
Directors: Keith Fulton, Louis Pepe | Stars: Luke Treadaway, Harry Treadaway, Jonathan Pryce, John Simm
Votes: 1,875 | Gross: $0.04M
8. This Is England (2006)
Not Rated | 101 min | Crime, Drama
A young boy becomes friends with a gang of skinheads. Friends soon become like family, and relationships will be pushed to the very limit.
Director: Shane Meadows | Stars: Thomas Turgoose, Stephen Graham, Jo Hartley, Andrew Shim
Votes: 128,706 | Gross: $0.33M
9. Secrets & Lies (1996)
R | 136 min | Comedy, Drama
Following the death of her adoptive parents, a successful young black optometrist establishes contact with her biological mother -- a lonely white factory worker living in poverty in East London.
Director: Mike Leigh | Stars: Timothy Spall, Brenda Blethyn, Phyllis Logan, Claire Rushbrook
Votes: 47,173 | Gross: $13.42M
10. Driving Lessons (2006)
PG-13 | 98 min | Comedy, Drama
A coming of age story about a shy teenage boy trying to escape from the influence of his domineering mother. His world changes when he begins to work for a retired actress.
Director: Jeremy Brock | Stars: Rupert Grint, Laura Linney, Julie Walters, Fay Cohen
Votes: 11,032 | Gross: $0.24M
11. Human Traffic (1999)
R | 99 min | Comedy, Music
Five youngsters embrace the 90s clubbing scene on a drug-fuelled weekend of partying in Cardiff.
Director: Justin Kerrigan | Stars: John Simm, Lorraine Pilkington, Shaun Parkes, Nicola Reynolds
Votes: 27,117 | Gross: $0.10M
12. Tyrannosaur (2011)
Not Rated | 92 min | Drama
Joseph, a man plagued by violence and a rage that is driving him to self-destruction, earns a chance of redemption that appears in the form of Hannah, a Christian charity shop worker.
Director: Paddy Considine | Stars: Peter Mullan, Archie Lal, Jag Sanghera, Mike Fearnley
Votes: 33,762 | Gross: $0.02M
13. Black Pond (2011)
Not Rated | 83 min | Comedy, Drama, Thriller
An ordinary British family and their friend are accused of murder when a stranger dies at their dinner table.
Directors: Tom Kingsley, Will Sharpe | Stars: Chris Langham, Simon Amstell, Amanda Hadingue, Colin Hurley
Votes: 975
14. Shallow Grave (1994)
R | 89 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Three friends discover their new flatmate dead but loaded with cash.
Director: Danny Boyle | Stars: Kerry Fox, Christopher Eccleston, Ewan McGregor, Ken Stott
Votes: 66,217 | Gross: $2.88M
15. Heartless (I) (2009)
114 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Jamie Morgan, a young man with a large heart-shaped birthmark on his face, discovers that there are demons on the streets of East London.
Director: Philip Ridley | Stars: Jim Sturgess, Luke Treadaway, Clémence Poésy, Justin Salinger
Votes: 10,374 | Gross: $0.00M
16. Submarine (2010)
R | 97 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
15-year-old Oliver Tate has two objectives: to lose his virginity before his next birthday, and to extinguish the flame between his mother and an ex-lover who has resurfaced in her life.
Director: Richard Ayoade | Stars: Craig Roberts, Sally Hawkins, Paddy Considine, Noah Taylor
Votes: 96,508 | Gross: $0.47M
17. 24 Hour Party People (2002)
R | 117 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama
In 1976, Tony Wilson sets up Factory Records and brings Manchester's music to the world.
Director: Michael Winterbottom | Stars: Steve Coogan, Lennie James, John Thomson, Paul Popplewell
Votes: 39,681 | Gross: $1.13M
18. Son of Rambow (2007)
PG-13 | 96 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
During a long English summer in the early 1980s, two schoolboys from differing backgrounds set out to make a film inspired by First Blood (1982).
Director: Garth Jennings | Stars: Bill Milner, Will Poulter, Jessica Hynes, Anna Wing
Votes: 32,966 | Gross: $1.78M
19. Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll (2010)
TV-MA | 115 min | Biography, Drama, Music
A biography of Ian Dury, who was stricken with polio at a young age and defied expectations by becoming one of the founders of the punk-rock scene in Britain in the 1970s.
Director: Mat Whitecross | Stars: Andy Serkis, Tom Hughes, Clifford Samuel, Joseph Kennedy
Votes: 4,422
20. The Winter Guest (1997)
R | 108 min | Drama
A recent widow, who is determined to leave Scotland for Australia with her son, gets an unexpected visit from her aging mother.
Director: Alan Rickman | Stars: Phyllida Law, Emma Thompson, Sheila Reid, Sandra Voe
Votes: 3,748 | Gross: $0.78M
21. Restless Natives (1985)
PG | 90 min | Comedy, Crime
Two Scottish friends become local folk heroes and tourist attractions when they start holding up tour buses with novelty items.
Director: Michael Hoffman | Stars: Vincent Friell, Ned Beatty, Joe Mullaney, Teri Lally
Votes: 1,976
22. Neds (2010)
TV-14 | 124 min | Drama
Encompassed by violent street gangs, neglectful parents, bullying teachers and a dearth of positive role models, a studious but emotionally abandoned kid turns thug.
Director: Peter Mullan | Stars: Conor McCarron, Greg Forrest, Joe Szula, Mhairi Anderson
Votes: 8,776
23. Eden Lake (2008)
R | 91 min | Horror, Thriller
Refusing to let anything spoil their romantic weekend break, a young couple confront a gang of loutish youths with terrifyingly brutal consequences.
Director: James Watkins | Stars: Kelly Reilly, Michael Fassbender, Tara Ellis, Jack O'Connell
Votes: 94,805 | Gross: $0.01M
24. Gregory's Girl (1980)
PG | 91 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Gregory is a normal teen who is infatuated with a classmate. He must work to win her affection.
Director: Bill Forsyth | Stars: John Gordon Sinclair, Dee Hepburn, Jake D'Arcy, Clare Grogan
Votes: 9,447
25. Rita, Sue and Bob Too (1987)
R | 89 min | Comedy, Drama
Realistic story of working-class Yorkshire life, alternately serious and light-hearted, as two schoolgirls have a sexual fling with a married man.
Director: Alan Clarke | Stars: Siobhan Finneran, Michelle Holmes, George Costigan, Lesley Sharp
Votes: 4,793 | Gross: $0.12M
26. Deep End (1970)
R | 88 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
15-year-old dropout Mike takes a job at Newford Baths, where inappropriate sexual behaviour abounds, and becomes obsessed with his coworker Susan.
Director: Jerzy Skolimowski | Stars: Jane Asher, John Moulder-Brown, Karl Michael Vogler, Christopher Sandford
Votes: 7,497
27. The Wicker Man (1973)
R | 88 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A puritan police sergeant arrives in a Scottish island village in search of a missing girl, who the pagan locals claim never existed.
Director: Robin Hardy | Stars: Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee, Diane Cilento, Britt Ekland
Votes: 92,230 | Gross: $0.06M
28. Kes (1969)
PG-13 | 111 min | Drama, Family
A working-class English boy spends his free time caring for and training his pet kestrel.
Director: Ken Loach | Stars: David Bradley, Brian Glover, Freddie Fletcher, Lynne Perrie
Votes: 22,927
29. Trainspotting (1996)
R | 93 min | Drama
Renton, deeply immersed in the Edinburgh drug scene, tries to clean up and get out despite the allure of drugs and the influence of friends.
Director: Danny Boyle | Stars: Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd
Votes: 725,455 | Gross: $16.50M
30. Let Him Have It (1991)
R | 115 min | Crime, Drama, History
This drama reveals the controversial postwar 1950's London murder trial that sent an intellectually challenged young man to the gallows for a murder he did not commit.
Director: Peter Medak | Stars: Tom Courtenay, Christopher Eccleston, Eileen Atkins, Rebecca Eccleston
Votes: 3,800
31. Nil by Mouth (1997)
R | 128 min | Drama
A rough, short-tempered patriarch of a working-class family sees his life and the relationships around him slowly unravel.
Director: Gary Oldman | Stars: Ray Winstone, Kathy Burke, Charlie Creed-Miles, Laila Morse
Votes: 10,190
32. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960)
Approved | 89 min | Drama, Romance
A rebellious, hard-living factory worker juggles relationships with two women, one of whom is married to another man but pregnant with his child.
Director: Karel Reisz | Stars: Albert Finney, Shirley Anne Field, Rachel Roberts, Hylda Baker
Votes: 9,285
33. Peeping Tom (1960)
Not Rated | 101 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
A young man murders women, using a movie camera to film their dying expressions of terror.
Director: Michael Powell | Stars: Karlheinz Böhm, Anna Massey, Moira Shearer, Maxine Audley
Votes: 39,234 | Gross: $0.08M
34. Cherrybomb (2009)
Not Rated | 76 min | Action, Drama, Romance
Three teenagers go on a wild weekend of drink, drugs, shop-lifting and stealing cars that quickly spins beyond their control.
Directors: Lisa Barros D'Sa, Glenn Leyburn | Stars: Rupert Grint, Robert Sheehan, James Nesbitt, Niamh Quinn
Votes: 7,543
35. My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)
R | 97 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
An ambitious Pakistani Briton and his white boyfriend strive for success and hope when they open a glamorous laundromat.
Director: Stephen Frears | Stars: Saeed Jaffrey, Roshan Seth, Daniel Day-Lewis, Richard Graham
Votes: 17,290 | Gross: $2.45M
36. This Sporting Life (1963)
Not Rated | 134 min | Drama, Sport
Despite success on the field, a rising rugby star senses the emerging emptiness of his life as his inner angst begins to materialize through aggression and brutality, so he attempts to woo his landlady in hopes of finding reason to live.
Director: Lindsay Anderson | Stars: Richard Harris, Rachel Roberts, Alan Badel, William Hartnell
Votes: 7,129
37. The Long Good Friday (1980)
R | 114 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
An up-and-coming gangster is tested by the insurgence of an unknown, very powerful threat.
Director: John Mackenzie | Stars: Bob Hoskins, Helen Mirren, Paul Freeman, Leo Dolan
Votes: 25,585
38. Fish Tank (2009)
Not Rated | 123 min | Drama
Everything changes for 15-year-old Mia when her mum brings home a new boyfriend.
Director: Andrea Arnold | Stars: Katie Jarvis, Michael Fassbender, Kierston Wareing, Rebecca Griffiths
Votes: 65,030 | Gross: $0.37M
39. Oranges and Sunshine (2010)
R | 105 min | Biography, Drama, History
Set in 1980s Nottingham, social worker Margaret Humphreys holds the British government accountable for child migration schemes and reunites the children involved -- now adults living mostly in Australia -- with their parents in Britain.
Director: Jim Loach | Stars: Emily Watson, Aisling Loftus, Stuart Wolfenden, Lorraine Ashbourne
Votes: 5,903
40. Dead Man's Shoes (2004)
Not Rated | 90 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A disaffected soldier returns to his hometown to get even with the thugs who brutalized his mentally-challenged brother years ago.
Director: Shane Meadows | Stars: Paddy Considine, Gary Stretch, Toby Kebbell, Stuart Wolfenden
Votes: 58,353 | Gross: $0.01M
41. Scum (1979)
R | 98 min | Crime, Drama
An uncompromising story of life in a British juvenile offender institution in the '70s.
Director: Alan Clarke | Stars: Ray Winstone, Mick Ford, Julian Firth, John Blundell
Votes: 13,075
42. Tommy (1975)
PG | 111 min | Drama, Musical
A psychosomatically blind, deaf, and mute boy becomes a master pinball player and, subsequently, the figurehead of a cult.
Director: Ken Russell | Stars: Roger Daltrey, Ann-Margret, Oliver Reed, Elton John
Votes: 22,628 | Gross: $34.25M
43. The Boy Friend (1971)
G | 137 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
When the leading lady of a low-budget musical revue sprains her ankle, the assistant stage manager is forced to understudy and perform in her place, becoming a star and finding love in the process.
Director: Ken Russell | Stars: Twiggy, Christopher Gable, Max Adrian, Bryan Pringle
Votes: 3,585
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