I recently saw this on a late night viewing at the local cinema, I thought it was fantastic, it was very powerful, and hard-hitting, and perhaps even bleak in the whole realistic Ken Loach kind of way.
The characters in Loach's films are so real they're someone you can relate to, that's what I like about KL's films, obviously they are not for everyone, but give me Raining Stones, or Sweet Sixteen over
'Triple xXx' anytime, there is enough action, and personal adventure for my liking.
The thing with Loach's work, a first time viewer may read the synopsis and would think "what's that all about?" A poor,young and desperate boy tries to raise the cash to buy his mother, who is in prison a caravan, in order to get her a better quality of life when she gets out, and get her away from her bad influences. He will stop at nothing to raise that cash, even selling drugs, so what! he at least has the heart to do something, he could be a careless junkie like the rest of them. The great thing about Loach's work is he gets involved with social and political issues, and is not afraid to be daring. Like raining Stones the story; a man at hard times tries to raise money to buy his daughter a communion dress, is the basic gist of the story, to some that may sound very un-exiting but the film is excellent. I have to say that Ken Loach is a superb director not supported enough by the public in my opinion, our country need more film makers like Ken Loach and Mike Leigh, we should be the envy of the film work with directors like these, they are not out of touch either, I think they seem more aware of life, and in this instance young life, than most other directors. The only downside in this film for me was, the fact it used subtitles for the first fifteen minutes, I think due to the broad Scottish accents being hard to understand by viewers after a few screen tests. I understood every word spoken in the film, and was disapointed it and to do this, if it was all tongue in cheek I can see the funny side of it, but the sort of people watching this film have seen enough films to 'get' the accents. But using them may have been for the sake of a wider audience, which is what this director deserves.
8/10
The characters in Loach's films are so real they're someone you can relate to, that's what I like about KL's films, obviously they are not for everyone, but give me Raining Stones, or Sweet Sixteen over
'Triple xXx' anytime, there is enough action, and personal adventure for my liking.
The thing with Loach's work, a first time viewer may read the synopsis and would think "what's that all about?" A poor,young and desperate boy tries to raise the cash to buy his mother, who is in prison a caravan, in order to get her a better quality of life when she gets out, and get her away from her bad influences. He will stop at nothing to raise that cash, even selling drugs, so what! he at least has the heart to do something, he could be a careless junkie like the rest of them. The great thing about Loach's work is he gets involved with social and political issues, and is not afraid to be daring. Like raining Stones the story; a man at hard times tries to raise money to buy his daughter a communion dress, is the basic gist of the story, to some that may sound very un-exiting but the film is excellent. I have to say that Ken Loach is a superb director not supported enough by the public in my opinion, our country need more film makers like Ken Loach and Mike Leigh, we should be the envy of the film work with directors like these, they are not out of touch either, I think they seem more aware of life, and in this instance young life, than most other directors. The only downside in this film for me was, the fact it used subtitles for the first fifteen minutes, I think due to the broad Scottish accents being hard to understand by viewers after a few screen tests. I understood every word spoken in the film, and was disapointed it and to do this, if it was all tongue in cheek I can see the funny side of it, but the sort of people watching this film have seen enough films to 'get' the accents. But using them may have been for the sake of a wider audience, which is what this director deserves.
8/10
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