MOVIE: Don’t miss Sorry We Missed You

KEN Loach films can be grim, and at times preachy. But one thing you can never accuse the ageing British director of, is not caring about the plight of the underdog. 

From ‘The Wind that Shakes the Barley’ which painted British occupying forces in Ireland in a less than favourable light to the more recent ‘I, Daniel Blake’ which deals with one man’s struggle against the benefits system, Loach and long time screenwriting collaborator, Paul Laverty, point the camera and pen at subjects other filmmakers would find too boring.

Loach’s new movie, ‘Sorry We Missed You’, is anything but boring, and tackles a topic that many workers now face, zero hour contracts and lack of security around employment. 

Kris Hitchen plays northern father Ricky Turner who’s struggling to put food on the table while his wife, Abbie, played by Debbie Honeywood, is a carer forced to travel by bus after Ricky sells the family car to buy the van he needs for his new job. As the story unfolds, and both parents, along with their two children are pushed to the edge, the family are left at breaking point. 

This is a harrowing watch but powerful in its rawness with tremendous performances from the entire Turner household. We award it a review
score of four hard working stars.  

If you’re in need of something more uplifting, we recommend ‘Brittany Runs a Marathon’ starring Jillian Bell as overweight Brittany who decides to get in shape and run the following year’s New York marathon. 

This is a feel good comedy about self worth that manages to tread some tricky ground in an inspirational way, and we liked it.

And still running in cinemas are the cop drama, ‘Black and Blue’, which is fine if you enjoy corrupt cop thrillers, ‘The Addams Family’, which is very much for the kids and anyone who enjoyed ‘Hotel Transylvani’, and finally the clever horror ‘Countdown’ which has nothing to do with conundrums or dictionaries, and everything to do with
an app which tells you when you’re going
to die. 

Paul O’Rourke