Deborah Ross

Loach at his most Loach

Fearsomely moving, fearsomely tender, and deliciously comic

issue 22 October 2016

I, Daniel Blake is a Ken Loach film about a Newcastle joiner who can’t work but faces a welfare bureaucracy that won’t listen, humiliates him, grinds him down, so it’s fun, fun, fun all the way. Yes, it is that Ken Loach film, but as that Ken Loach film is more powerful than most other films — and this is fearsomely moving (I cried), and fearsomely tender (I cried again) — you’re just going to have to suck it up.

It has been 50 years since Cathy...

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