Educating Rita

Educating Rita (1983) is a British comedy-drama you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Lewis Gilbert. Rita is a 26-year-old hairdresser from working-class Liverpool who signs up for an Open University literature course. Not for a certificate. For something harder to explain.

Her assigned tutor is Dr Frank Bryant — Michael Caine playing a man whose best years are clearly behind him, propped up by whisky and routine. Then Julie Walters walks in as Rita, and she has no interest in behaving the way the institution expects. She laughs at the wrong moments, questions the texts Frank holds sacred, and starts changing the dynamic between them before either of them quite notices. Walters is a force here. The film belongs to her as much as to Caine.

Adapted from Willy Russell's stage play, the film earned Oscar nominations for both leads — one of very few films where the male and female leads were both up for the award in the same year. Sharp, warm, and built entirely on two people talking. Stream Educating Rita (1983) online on iFILM.