The Old Oak

Loach and his screenwriter Paul Lavery are sometimes painfully on-the-nose, borderline parodic, in their contrived kitchen sink sensibilities.

The final scene of “The Old Oak” reduced me, once again and for the final time, to tears.

It is unmistakably a Loach film: taciturn yet forthright, examining life in the cracks of a fractured society with deep compassion, plain-spoken anger and, perhaps more so than in the previous two films, a shot of hope.

It’s a fable that ties up too neatly to be believed, and it’s a story I’m tired of hearing.

Like with all Ken Loach films, reality is at the center of it.

It’s a righteous oeuvre with marvelously strong roots.

Inspiring story in which a town of unemployed miners and a group of Syrian refugees discover how big is their we.

Much like Bannatyne and the food initiative give hope to the town, The Old Oak is a beacon of hope in an otherwise cruel and vicious world where, as suggested by the movie, people have to choose between affording heating or food .

The welcome humanism of Loach but broached with clumsy and overused overtness. [Full review in Spanish]

[Loach] is capable of building praiseworthy characters, who live beyond the screen and endowing them with a painful, aggrieved, hardened humanity. [Full review in Spanish]