Ken Loach
My Name Is Joe

“… Five years later, I stepped foot back into (a meeting with Alcoholics Anonymous) … and I could no longer put the “not” in front of those words: “My name is Joe and I am an alcoholic”... There was a woman, a tiny woman, all skin and bones, who always spoke with a whisper, and she came out with something very simple: “If I keep drinking, I condemn myself.” And that really touched me. Even in the state I was in, and I was feeling like crap, huh, that woman looked me straight in the eyes and said: “Remember, you are not alone.” Joe Kavanagh

Every now and then, when I feel alone and useless to myself and others, I need to watch a Ken Loach film. It makes me feel part of my school of fish and, thus, every now and then, it helps me.

This is because the characters in his films, belonging to the working or laboring class, try to stay afloat in a stormy and murky sea, and the only way they find not to sink is by not being alone. Helping each other, being available to fellow swimmers, caring for those who can't make it. This is what the protagonists of My name is Joe do, undoubtedly one of his most beautiful films.

The protagonist, Joe, was an alcoholic and lives fighting with the ghosts of his past, keeping busy in the present. He receives benefits and coaches a ragtag team: his players are like sons or brothers to him, he cares for them: he gets angry for them, rejoices with them. He helps them when they are in trouble, and in this story, Liam, Sabine, and their son Scott find themselves in deep trouble.

Liam and Sabine fall in and out of addiction. They are struggling to make it, and by their side is Joe, but there is also Sarah, who is an extraordinary social worker. Like Joe, to stay afloat and not sink into a past we assume is complicated, she must help others.

Joe and Sarah argue about Liam, they are not the type to back down when there is a fight for someone they care about, for something they believe in. So they start getting to know each other. And they start swimming together.

While these four and everyone else try to move forward against the current, against the ghosts of their own past, someone tries to pull them underwater. It is McGowan's gang, the local drug dealer.

I loved the film a lot. The characterization of Joe, whose portrayal earned Peter Mullan the Best Actor award at Cannes, is perfectly calibrated: presented in broad strokes with the above words, he is a passionate man, fighting to control without extinguishing these emotions. Throughout the film, he will cyclically lose control, find it again, and throw in the towel, experiencing the full range of emotions: shame and pride, joy and despair, anger and despondency. These emotions are internalized by Sarah, his female counterpart, well portrayed by the almost debuting Louise Goodall. Like her, David McKay and Anne Marie Kennedy are debuting actors who have lived through a life similar to the one Liam and Sabine live in.

The screenplay by Paul Laverty is excellent, capable of bringing out hope and teaching emotions through an extremely dramatic story.

This is why I believe that watching My name is Joe is not just recommended, but absolutely necessary.