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6.3/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 6.3/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Housing Problems remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you like social history or old-school documentary filmmaking, you’ll dig this. If you need a plot or big action sequences, skip it. You’ll probably hate it if you get bored by talking heads and grainy black-and-white footage of old kitchens.
Housing Problems isn't really a movie in the way we usually think about them. It’s more of a long, urgent argument captured on film. It’s got this very specific, stiff British tone that feels like a lecture from a teacher who is trying really hard not to sound too posh while talking about bedbugs.
The best part is definitely when they just let the residents talk. You see these real people, standing in their dark, damp rooms, explaining how they have to fight off vermin every single night. It’s stark. There’s no music playing to tell you how to feel, just a man or woman sitting there, being honest about how miserable their home is. It hits way harder than any narrator’s script ever could.
There is this one shot of a woman talking about her ceiling leaking, and the camera just stays on her face. It doesn't cut away. It’s awkward, but it makes you pay attention to the details in her wallpaper. I kept wondering if anyone had ever just handed her a drink while they were filming.
It’s funny how different this feels compared to something like Le Million. That film is all about the energy of the street, while this is all about how we should probably stop living in the street, or at least in the crumbling houses lining it. It’s a total shift in perspective.
It’s not a masterpiece, but it’s a weirdly important little time capsule. You can tell they really wanted to change the world. Sometimes they succeed just by showing you the peeling paint in a dark corner. It’s short, punchy, and leaves you thinking about your own apartment in a way you probably didn't intend to. 🏚️