Since he made Kes in 1969 Ken Loach has made more than fifty films, mostly about the working class in England, generally in a neo-realist style influenced by De Sica and Rossellini; he is one of the few directors currently working, now 84, whose movies I look forward to. Sorry We Missed You is the best film I've seen about workers in the "gig economy," where businesses convince workers they are self-employed before they screw them and their families.
Ricky (Kris Hitchen) starts to work for a delivery company and has to sell his wife Abbie's (Debbie Honeywood) car to buy the necessary van (otherwise he would have to "rent" a company one at a high rate). This means that Abbie now has to take the bus to her elderly clients that she takes care of in her own gig job as a home health aide. Abbie and Ricky have to work ridiculous hours in order to stay afloat and when they have to take time off to deal with their kids, one a teen-ager in constant trouble, they are docked for the time. When Ricky is assaulted and robbed on the job he can't even afford to take time off to mend.
Sorry We Missed You was filmed in Newcastle and captures the difficulties and dilemmas of the working class and the gig economy in England. Loach, as usual, mostly avoids didacticism and lets his observations speak for themselves.
No comments:
Post a Comment