---
title: "Riff-Raff"
year: 1991
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/riff-raff"
fi1m_id: "riff-raff"
imdb_id: "tt0100491"
tmdb_id: 59058
wikidata_id: "Q648032"
fi1m_score: 77
critics_score: 66
critics_reviews: 7
published: "2026-09-13"
updated: "2026-09-18T08:38:15.495515+00:00"
region: "US"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Riff-Raff (1991)

Directed by Ken Loach · 1h 35m · Comedy, Drama

## Identity

Riff-Raff

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/riff-raff
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** riff-raff
- **IMDb ID:** tt0100491
- **TMDB ID:** 59058
- **Wikidata ID:** Q648032
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100491/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/59058, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q648032

**Fi1m score: 77** · Critics 66 from 7 reviews

*In a sentence:* We would pay these builders to talk, which may not help get the job finished

> Ken Loach’s building-site comedy is funny, observant and well cast, with Robert Carlyle and Ricky Tomlinson among its pleasures. The romance is less convincing, and some scenes ramble, but the workers are worth spending an evening with.

## Synopsis

On a London building site, labourers get through the working day with jokes, scams and one another’s company. The work brings physical risks, uncertain prospects and distance between the men doing the jobs and the management. A romance runs alongside the accounts of working life, bringing another set of complications. Ken Loach directs this comedy-drama, with Robert Carlyle as Stevie, Emer McCourt as Susan and Ricky Tomlinson as Larry. Peter Mullan plays Jake in an ensemble whose stories follow the workers’ efforts to earn a living and find some pleasure beyond it.

## Review

Ken Loach’s *Riff-Raff* is a good, unruly workplace comedy whose romance never quite earns the time spent on it. Its London building site gives us people who have to get on with the job, however little protection the job offers them. Loach is interested in how they entertain one another as much as in what makes their lives difficult. Their insecure employment remains a concern even while the jokes are coming.

Bill Jesse’s screenplay is alert to the scams and shared jokes that help the labourers through the day. We laughed at the scams, because getting away with something is treated as a perfectly ordinary skill. The humour depends on familiarity: these people know the work and the company they are keeping. Jesse makes the separation between workers and management clear, too, and does not interrupt the humour to deliver a lecture. Their grievances are easy to understand when we have spent time listening to them.

Robert Carlyle gives Stevie enough presence to hold our attention without making the ensemble seem incidental. Ricky Tomlinson’s Larry fits the humour particularly well, with an ease that makes the workplace conversations convincing. The supporting players matter because the comedy needs a group whose members seem capable of carrying on when the principal actors have left. Loach’s casting largely achieves that, and the roughness of the exchanges is often a pleasure.

Barry Ackroyd’s cinematography gives the film its documentary feel, keeping the building site important to our sense of the people in it. The workplace is allowed to look like somewhere a shift has to be completed. Martin Johnson’s production design makes those surroundings credible, and the lack of visual fuss is welcome. A picturesque site would quickly make the labour seem like a pleasant way to pass an afternoon, which would undo much of what Jesse has written.

Jonathan Morris’s editing lets the film proceed through loosely linked episodes, and the relaxed pace usually suits the material. There is time for exchanges that are amusing and contribute nothing essential to the plot. Some of the partly improvised scenes become muddled, though, and the film does not always know when a joke has finished. Stewart Copeland’s music supports the lighter tone without insisting that we find the men’s circumstances cheerful. The cast’s conversational timing makes the stronger impression.

The romance exposes the limits of this loose approach, asking for a sustained interest that the writing has not secured. Emer McCourt’s Susan is played with conviction, but the film is less persuasive about intimate relationships than it is about sharing a working day. Jesse and Loach also push some of the drama harder than they need to, allowing contrivance into scenes that ought to convince us as readily as the site conversations. We do not need the difficulties made more emphatic to understand what is at stake.

Social comedy can become dutiful when everyone exists to demonstrate how badly a country is being run. *Riff-Raff* avoids that trap for long stretches because its workers are allowed to enjoy themselves, even when their prospects give them little reason to. At 95 minutes, it has room for that company without demanding too much patience. Choose it for an evening when a few good laughs and some recognisable working lives are enough.

*Fi1m score 77, published 13 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics take to Riff-Raff warmly, and most are surprised by how funny it is. The consensus is that Ken Loach lightens up here and lets the banter on a London building site carry the film: labourers divided by accent and background, united in contempt for the men paying them. Bill Jesse’s script draws steady praise for catching the texture of casual work, its scams, dangers and camaraderie, and the reviews credit the semi-improvised, unstarry casting for making the men sound like men rather than mouthpieces. Several note that the politics arrive without a sermon attached.

The reservations are small. Time Out finds the romance subplot wavers and that some improvised scenes slide into chaos. The spread is narrow: six reviews sit close together at good rather than remarkable. The one dissenter is Empire, which finds the anecdotes loosely strung, the late turns melodramatic, and the whole thing a television film shown on the wrong screen.

## Straight answers

**Is Riff-Raff worth watching?**

*Riff-Raff* is worth watching for anyone who enjoys a loose, funny workplace comedy about London building labourers, and we scored it 77. Robert Carlyle and Ricky Tomlinson lead a well-cast ensemble whose scams and site conversations are the real pleasure. The romance is less convincing and some improvised scenes ramble, so it suits an evening when good company matters more than tight plotting.

**How long is Riff-Raff, and what is it rated?**

*Riff-Raff* runs 1h 35m. It is a comedy and drama film.

**Where can I watch Riff-Raff in the US?**

*Riff-Raff* is streaming on Tubi and Amazon Prime Video in the US, and it is also available to rent from Amazon Prime Video from $1.99. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

### Reviews we read (7)

- **The Guardian** (80/100, inferred): Ken Loach continued to find fertile ground and plenty of comic potential in the working man's struggle against Thatcherism. The banter between construction workers, divided by ethnicity and idiom but united in disdain for their bosses, supplies many of the laughs. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/aug/30/riff-raff-best-british-films)
- **Los Angeles Times**, Kenneth Turan (70/100, inferred): Loach depicts British have-nots for whom easy answers and lasting pleasures do not exist. The film is a likable, unpretentious slice of working-class life with warmhearted humor tempered by social consciousness. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-03-17-ca-11760-story.html)
- **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (70/100, inferred): Loach's film portrays construction workers in London as proletarian outsiders alienated from management and the class system. It mixes comedy with sharp social observation of their precarious lives and camaraderie. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/riff-raff-1993)
- **The New York Times**, Vincent Canby (70/100, inferred): Loach's tough, honest and achingly funny comedy about nonunion construction workers illustrates British working-class life without preaching. It updates earlier working-class films with unsentimental realism and regional accents requiring subtitles. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1993/02/12/movies/reviews-film-a-blue-collar-comedy-in-english-subtitled.html)
- **Time Out** (70/100, inferred): Loach lightens up for this documentary-style comedy about the scams, laughs, dangers and camaraderie of work on a London building site. Bill Jesse's pointedly funny script skilfully evokes the texture of working life, though the romance subplot wavers and some improvised scenes slip into chaos. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/riff-raff)
- **Variety**, Variety Staff (70/100, inferred): Loach's sprightly ensemble comedy about workers on a London building site surprises with its focus on yocks over politics. The semi-improvised film is strong on humor, easy to digest, and benefits from authentic casting. [Read](https://variety.com/1990/film/reviews/riff-raff-1200428771/)
- **Empire**, Kim Newman (30/100, inferred): The critic describes it as a loosely anecdotal account of labourers' lives that strings stories together effectively at times but ultimately falls flat with melodramatic contrivances and feels like a TV film on the big screen. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/riff-raff-review/)

## Details

- **Director:** Ken Loach
- **Director:** Ken Loach
- **Screenplay:** Bill Jesse
- **Cinematography:** Barry Ackroyd
- **Editor:** Jonathan Morris
- **Music:** Stewart Copeland
- **Production design:** Martin Johnson
- **Costume design:** Wendy Knowles
- **Producer:** Sally Hibbin
- **Cast:** Robert Carlyle as Stevie; Emer McCourt as Susan; George Moss as Mo; Jim R. Coleman as Shem; Ricky Tomlinson as Larry; David Finch as Kevin; Peter Mullan as Jake; Richard Belgrave as Kojo
- **Runtime:** 1h 35m
- **Release (the US):** 12 February 1993
- **Genres:** Comedy, Drama
- **Budget:** $750,000
- **Box office:** $295,444
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TkyRQkpEtI

## Where to watch in the US

- Tubi: free, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: add-on
- Amazon Prime Video: rent $1.99, sd
- Amazon Prime Video: buy $7.99, sd

*Checked 2026-09-13.*

Also available in: CA, FR, GB, IE, IT, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## Awards

- European Film Award for Best Film 1991: European Film Award for Best Film (won)
- European Film Award for Best Supporting Actor 1991: European Film Award for Best Supporting Actor (nominated)

## If you liked this

- *The Navigators* (2001): Loach returns to workplace solidarity, with railway workers facing another form of insecurity.
- *Drifting Clouds* (1996): Dry humour and sudden unemployment, with working people allowed some dignity and tenderness.
- *Support the Girls* (2018): A restaurant manager keeps the jokes coming while doing far too much for everyone.
- *The Working Class Goes to Heaven* (1971): Factory labour gets a harsher comic treatment, with exhaustion always close to the laughter.
- *The Lunchbox* (2013), Fi1m 75: Working routines make room for a quieter, more persuasive account of an uncertain romance. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-lunchbox.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/riff-raff