Film

Wish You Were Here

Other titles called Wish You Were Here: the 2012 film.

A 1987 British comedy-drama about a rebellious working-class girl coming of age in a cramped post-war seaside town. Emily Lloyd is fearless and filthy-mouthed as Lynda, a teenager in open defiance of her suffocating surroundings. Bawdy, tender, sometimes uncomfortable—it's a portrait of sexual awakening that refuses sentimentality.

TMDb rating3.2

If you liked this

My Beautiful Laundrette1985

Stephen Frears directs this bracingly unsentimental look at sexuality, class, and belonging in 1980s London. Daniel Day-Lewis gives a career-early performance that crackles with danger.

But The narrative is deliberately fragmentary and the tone shifts between comedy and darkness in ways that can feel jarring.

My Beautiful Laundrette poster

Mona Lisa1986

Neil Jordan's film pairs Bob Hoskins with Cathy Tyson in a London underworld story that's sexually frank and emotionally complex. Grubby, smart, unexpectedly moving.

But The sex work at its centre means some of the material is explicit, and the mood is considerably darker than comedic.

Mona Lisa poster

Sid and Nancy1986

Alex Cox's punk-rock tragedy about the Sex Pistols bassist and his girlfriend. Visually wild, emotionally raw, capturing a moment when transgression felt like the only honest response.

But It's bleak and chaotic in ways that don't offer much comfort. Some viewers find it more self-indulgent than affecting.

Sid and Nancy poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Wish You Were Here

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Meatballs1979

Both are about young people using humour and transgression as a way to claim space in institutions designed to contain them.

Bill Murray's summer-camp comedy seems like it has nothing to do with *Wish You Were Here*, but structurally it's about institutions constraining young people and the outsider comedy of watching them push back. Murray's anarchic energy mirrors Lloyd's refusal to be shaped by her surroundings, and the tone—goofy but with real warmth underneath—matches the film's balance.

But It's from a different world tonally: American, broad, and openly sentimental in places. The comparison only works if you're paying attention to structure rather than surface.

Meatballs poster
More like this (5)

Rita, Sue and Bob Too1987

Alan Clarke directs this comedy about two working-class girls and the married man who seduces them. Caustic, funny, and entirely devoid of moral hand-wringing about its subject.

But Released the same year, it's a natural comparison—some find it less subtle, and the sexual dynamic won't sit easy for everyone.

Rita, Sue and Bob Too poster

Dance with a Stranger1985

Miranda Richardson as Ruth Ellis, the last woman executed in Britain. A period film that's interested in female sexuality and agency rather than softening its protagonist.

But It's a slow, melancholic film about the lead-up to a tragedy. Gorgeous but deliberately unshowy in its emotional impact.

Dance with a Stranger poster

Absolute Beginners1986

Julien Temple's musical about London's 1950s youth culture and racial tensions. Visually dazzling and full of swagger, with a genuine interest in how young people remake the world.

But The musical numbers are polarising, and the film's tonal balance between romance and social commentary doesn't always land.

Absolute Beginners poster

Sammy and Rosie Get Laid1987

Stephen Frears and Hanif Abdurrakhman collaborate on this London-set story of a mixed-race couple and their chaotic household. Sexually frank, politically engaged, genuinely funny.

But The deliberate shapelessness of the narrative frustrates some viewers. It prioritises mood and moment over traditional story structure.

Sammy and Rosie Get Laid poster

The Killing of Sister George1968

Frank Alda's 1968 film is an earlier British oddity about sexuality and performance. A lesbian relationship and the television industry provide the setting for messy, uncomfortable drama.

But It's nearly twenty years older and feels it; some viewers find the handling of its subject matter dated, even if the core story remains provocative.

The Killing of Sister George poster

People

Cast

Directing

Writing

Production

Recommended by