I, Daniel Blake
2016
- Directors: Ken Loach and Laura Obiols
- Based on book: no
- Cast: Dave Johns, Hayley Squires, Briana Shann, Dylan McKiernan, Kate Rutter, Sharon Percy
- Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
- Briana Shann – Doctor Who
- Kate Rutter – The Railway Man, The Full Monty
- Sharon Percy – Billy Elliot
- Why? Ken Loach
- Seen: 19 January 2020
Widower Daniel Blake (Johns), a
construction worker, is on sick leave after a heart attack. His doctor won’t
let him work but he’s turned down for sick benefits. Frustrated by bureaucracy
and internet, he meets Kate, an unemployed young mother with two kids) at the
social benefits office where she too is being stonewalled by ever-so-polite but
adamantly rule-following staff.
They become friends and continue to get
the run-around everywhere they tuen but they help each other and get help from
others so they carry on.
It’s Ken Loach so it’s social realism,
warm, deeply humanistic. Each and every day everyday obstacles make life
difficult in a cold society that seems to actively want to crush the
individual. Legacy of Thatcher, global neo-liberalism, the widespread sell-out
of the public sector.
Realist. Depressing. And a very good
film.
5
* of 5.
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