My Name Is Joe

Ken Loach films are not for everyone. Perhaps they are not for anyone at the end of a stressful day. There is no escapism or eye candy. The sharp end of working class existence is shoved in front of your face and you are expected to keep your brain switched on. The themes explored are often similar and generally bleak. But there is also a wealth of real human experience, emotion and humour. These films make demands of their audience but reward your engagement with a truly cathartic experience.

The central characters in “My Name Is Joe” are warm, vulnerable, flawed, complex, and real. They all have histories, but we can only guess at most of them. I certainly found myself wanting to know these people more intimately. I was also hoping for a happy ending, while aware that this would be a cop out. Loach’s “Raining Stones” covers similar territory to this film. In both, a basically good man’s life is under threat from an “evil” moneylender. “Raining Stones” does produce a sort of happy ending: an accidental killing rewards the “good” and punishes the “bad”. You can just about swallow this once, but to have tried it again would have been too much. Here the outcome is far muddier. There is tragedy, but still hope of redemption for at least some of the protagonists. The moneylender carries on regardless, untouched, as they do.