Two families grapple with the ravages of poverty, apathy, and alcoholism in these unsparing yet darkly humorous portraits of life on the bottom rung of Thatcher’s Britain. In his richly impressionistic feature debut, acclaimed photographer Richard Billingham looks back at his dysfunctional Birmingham childhood and relationship to his addict parents, finding images of unexpected poetry amid the bleakness. Then, Mike Leigh directs early performances by Gary Oldman and Tim Roth in MEANTIME, a slow-burning depiction of economic degradation in 1980s England that marked the culmination of the celebrated writer-director’s pioneering work in television.