Withnail and I (1987)

All Critics (32) | Top Critics (3) | Fresh (33) | Rotten (5) | DVD (20)

Set in 1969 England, it portrays the last throes of a friendship mirroring the seedy demise of the hippie period, delivering some comic gems along the way.

September 10, 2007 Full Review

Variety Staff

Variety

Top Critic

A biting script from writer-director Bruce Robinson and performances from Richard E Grant and Paul McGann as two 'resting' actors, Withnail and 'I', that neither has surpassed.

January 26, 2006 Full Review

Dave Calhoun

Time Out

Top Critic

Perhaps Britain's most beloved cult film, Bruce Robinson's 1986 semi-autobiographical dark comedy is an obsessively observed character study.

November 12, 2010 Full Review

Cole Smithey

ColeSmithey.com

One of the funniest elements of Withnail & I is that it concerns three varieties of drama queen: the flamboyantly dark-minded Withnail; neurotic, ill-equipped Marwood, and the larger-than-life Monty. [Blu-ray]

August 29, 2010 Full Review

Peter Canavese

Groucho Reviews

Withnail would have poured himself an ale, raised it on high, and ordered Image Entertainment to stuff this econo-line Blu-ray up their arses for nothing.

August 29, 2010 Full Review

Joseph Jon Lanthier

Slant Magazine

Has a particularly rabid following. Maybe one has to be English to really understand why.

April 7, 2010 Full Review | Comments (9)

Michael Dequina

TheMovieReport.com

A defining rites-of-passage classic film.

November 18, 2007 Full Review

Dennis Schwartz

Ozus' World Movie Reviews

It's much funnier, and sadder, watched stone-cold sober.

September 10, 2007 Full Review

Peter Bradshaw

Guardian [UK]

A hilarious black comedy and already something of a cult favorite.

September 10, 2007 Full Review

TV Guide's Movie Guide

It is at once a coming-of-age comedy and a fond farewell to an era.

September 8, 2007 Full Review

Xan Brooks

Guardian [UK]

A modern classic? A brilliant vignette of a certain time and attitudes? A self-indulgent jeu d'esprit? One thing is certain: Richard E. Grant touched greatness.

September 7, 2007 Full Review

Martin Hoyle

Financial Times

The best British comedy ever made? Possibly. A masterpiece? Unquestionably.

September 7, 2007 Full Review | Comment (1)

Ali Catterall

Film4

Has any screenplay combined so many quotable lines with such tear-jerking pathos or blatant homophobia?

September 7, 2007 Full Review

Neil Smith

Total Film

Fans can mouth the words of Grant's big speeches along with him, relishing every viperish turn of phrase...this is and always will be a perfect dark comedy and a student staple.

October 4, 2006 Full Review

Empire Magazine

It's hilarious in a kind of off-beat, sideways sort of manner.

May 26, 2006 Full Review

Jeffrey M. Anderson

Combustible Celluloid

• 1. Peter Marwood ("I"): We want the finest wines available to humanity! We want them here and we want them now!
  – Submitted by Ann A (3 months ago)
• 1. Monty: [to the cat] you beastly little parasite how dare you, you little thug how dare you, arrgh beastly ungrateful little swine.
  – Submitted by Brad S (9 months ago)
• 1. Withnail: I feel like a pig shat in my head.
  – Submitted by Coraline S (13 months ago)
• 1. Danny: I don't advise a haircut, man. All hairdressers are in the employment of the government. Hairs are your aerials. They pick up signals from the cosmos, and transmit them directly into you brain! This is the reason bald-headed men are uptight.
  – Submitted by Coraline S (13 months ago)
• 1. Peter Marwood ("I"): Stop saying that Withnail, of course he's the fucking farmer!
  – Submitted by Orin G (14 months ago)
• 1. Withnail: I have of late, but wherefore I know not, lost all my mirth. And indeed it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory. This most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appeareth nothing to me but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculties! How like an angel in apprehension. How like a god! The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me, no, nor women neither. Nor women neither.
  – Submitted by Orin G (14 months ago)

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