Tag: Ken Loach

Screening Room: ‘I, Daniel Blake’

On By chrisbarsantiIn Film - Awards, Film - Festivals, Film - NewLeave a comment

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In Ken Loach’s searing new drama, an out-of-work carpenter fights to keep his humanity and a shred of dignity after being thrown into the Kafkaesque world of the UK’s social services bureaucracy.

I, Daniel Blake is playing now in limited release and is worth seeking out. My review is at PopMatters:

In many ways, I, Daniel Blake is as shamelessly manipulative as the most reductive romantic comedy or melodrama. Daniel might be the single most decent and loveable human being to grace a movie screen during the whole of 2016. At his side is a similarly decent single mother whose tearful travails are the stuff of a 19th-century immigrant’s saga. Together they contend with petty bureaucrats who never miss an opportunity to let their rulebooks and prickly egos keep them from doing their jobs. It’s David versus Goliath, only David doesn’t use a slingshot because he’s just too nice a bloke…

Here is the trailer.

Screening Room: ‘Jimmy’s Hall’

On By chrisbarsantiIn Film - New, HistoryLeave a comment
'Jimmy's Hall' (Sony Pictures Classics)
‘Jimmy’s Hall’ (Sony Pictures Classics)

Ken Loach’s latest slice of life from the British isles is based on the true story of Jimmy Gralton, an activist deported from Ireland  for political agitation who returns in 1932 to reopen his community hall. Trouble, with “mother church” and other forces of oppression, follows.

Jimmy’s Hall is opening this week in limited release. My review is at Film Racket:

Wearing a big progressive heart on its union-made sleeve, Jimmy’s Hall could easily have been a carefree lark about good times and toothless rebellion, if it had been directed by somebody besides Ken Loach. Another filmmaker, one without a political vertebrae to speak of, could have conjured up a piece of twee Irish fun that would have been twice as fun to watch but several times more pointless. Loach does have a thing for speeches. While they drag the film to a halt more than once, there’s a bright and touching sincerity running throughout that makes that wandering stodginess not matter so much…

Here’s the trailer:

Now Playing: ‘The Angels’ Share’

On By chrisbarsantiIn Film - NewLeave a comment

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For a film that starts with a young Glaswegian man getting arrested for public intoxication and includes plenty of fighting-drunk altercations, Ken Loach’s The Angels’ Share curiously puts a lot of faith in the power of careful and professional imbibing of spirits, particularly whiskey.

It’s a mostly tolerable and uplifting story with a few descents into the expected makwishness, but possible worth your time if you can seek it out at the local arthouse.

My review ran in Film Journal International.

Here’s the trailer: