I’m definitely checking out everything Ken Loach has done, starting with Kes. This was tragic and the saddest part is how real it is. The way it covers the fear and depressing aspects of literally normal people is...so smart, I am not doing it justice. Too many thoughts!

Cannes 2019
Film #9

“Who cares.” - Seb’s notebook

Sorry We Missed You is a punch to the emotional gut. It follows a family in a tight economic situation that becomes more and more dire. The father works for an Amazon-type of company that considers him self-employed; he has no benefits, but carries all of the risks. The mother is an underpaid caretaker and is a true softie. The teenage son gets into trouble with his parents gone and the adolescent daughter takes selfies with her cereal. 

Ken Loach’s film doesn’t have stars or a big budget. It only has an immense heart. And that goes a long, long, long, long way. It’s hands down the best film of the festival so far and it will be hard for anything else to top it. 

Rating: 9/10

Will never miss a Ken Loach.

Shot by Robbie Ryan on 16mm.
Arriflex 416, Zeiss Master Prime and Ultra Prime Lenses
Kodak Vision3 250D 7207, Vision3 200T 7213, Vision3 500T 7219

Watched Kino Lorber Blu-ray

ha ha dont mean to be political but actually FUCK CAPITALISM

you know it’s a heavy one when you and the fam sit through the whole credits not speaking to each other...... so real and honest, this one hits hard 😔

“maybe your best isn’t good enough, is it?”

absolutely crushing and achingly real. there are moments of true tenderness here surrounded by a lot of daily sorrow, but the balance is still just right. i would definitely call this a must see of the year, but have a box of tissues on hand just in case

capitalism exhausts us and pushes us to the edge. the whole time i worried that someone was going to be pushed so hard that they fell off, in one way or another. but maybe the real misery is in how we fight to hold on to what we have left.

This Ken Loach drama, which observes a married couple attempting to fulfil the unreasonable pressures of their zero hour contract employment, is marvellously executed and depressing in its demeaning precision. Written by longtime collaborator Paul Laverty and starring Kris Hitchen and Debbie Honeywood (as Ricky and Abby Turner) it’s a movie which is full of beautifully understated performances.

The narrative feels truthful in its demonstration of the shattering impact that the brutal economy has on honest people, and the mountain tensions are developed in minor but burdensome increments and skillfully weaved within the textured realism. The strength of Loach’s vision is always evident, and this is another movie giving a solid demonstration of his social and political sense of right and wrong.

There is always one scene in each of his films that make me bawl my eyes out and that trend continued with this effort. Given the recent job planning and welfare announcements the Australian Government made this week, perhaps this film should be required viewing.

LOL they met at a rave . 
I love Social Realism /Ken Loach rules.
Seriously, this is masterful, Bicycle Thief level stuff.

What a heat check pick from my dad on family movie night.

Like everything here, it’s your choice. 

Everything about this was so affecting and bleak that i watched probably a month ago and haven’t logged until now. Reminiscent of Tokyo Sonata mixed with the dystopian gig economy hell in Years and Years and the tight family unit in Parasite.

 Loach’s film feels especially devastating in the wake of the pandemic but even outside of that it’s a strong, damning, incisive look at the reality of working to live, the fallacy of independent contract workers in “being your own boss”, the quiet destruction of the family via financial anxiety, the expendable bodies/health of workers, the dimming hope that buying a house is something in reach. One of the best films of last year certainly, but might be too real for me to watch again anytime soon. 

Amazing performances, written beautifully. I guess it’s time for me to see more of Loach’s work.

Ken Loach is the most frustrating kind of artist. Here he is presenting genuinely pressing material about our collective instinct to rationalize the cruel absurdities of capitalism through studied verite and righteous frustration, without enough vision beyond how much of a bummer the situation is to truly be worth anyone's time. You know, like P*rasite. This is a huge improvement over "I, Daniel Blake," possessing a legitimate sense of drama beyond watching a cipher get punched in the face again and again. Loach does a good job drawing out the family dynamics here and having that sense of history inform the pile-up of problems, gradually tipping into a reversal of that cause-and-effect. Ultimately, just one too many piss bottles to the head to exist beyond its played-out instincts. Still, no way these movies are a net evil to the world, so keep doing your thing I suppose.

A particularly brutal and tragic Ken Loach film without the hope and inspiration of I, Daniel Blake. The amateurishness of the cast is apparent and unfortunate, at times, but the lead does a very consistent and moving job and it's a pretty strong script.

Brutal

Another absolute belter from Ken Loach. A must see ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Abbey es un ser de luz que debe ser protegido a toda costa de la maldad qué hay en esta película y en el mundo. Cuando se pone a llorar porque puteo y ella nunca putea demuestra lo increíble que es. Abbey te amo. Voy a rezarte a vos todas las noches. Amén.

What an absolute kick in the dick.

El cine del proletariado actual ha encontrado en Ken Loach a uno de sus represantantes mas importantantes, aunque deja de ser solo una mirada comtemplativa sobre la vida del trabajador para en su caso exponer a cada personaje a una serie de infortunios y donde a medida que avanza la trama mas parece irles peor. No hay tanta necesidad de ello, ya que la pelicula termina difuminandose es esa serie de infortunios y que de alguna forma se sabe que saldran de antemano. Buena pelicula, pero no lo mejor del director.