Review of I, Daniel Blake (2016) by Adrian W — 20 May 2017

Ken Loach's humanism has never failed to amaze me, and this film is no exception. Mr. Loach has dedicated his whole artistic life to depict various poor British faces, who have to try their best every single day just to get food on the table, but never lose their hearts, their souls, and their loves for other working-class fellows.

This film began with a very simple pretext and characters, but ended up with a "bang" that brought out the stark difference between the endless hopelessness that the protagonists have to suffer throughout the film, and their heartbreaking tenacity in keeping every last pieces of their dignity, and humanity.

Someone looking for a sophisticated cinematic work that was able to win the "Palme d'Or" over much more prominent films like "The Salesman" or "Toni Erdmann" would probably be disappointed with this film's simplicity and its repeated theme from other Ken Loach's works.

But no matter how complex we are, human is actually simple at heart (literally and metaphorically), especially when facing hardships in life. For that reason, let us enjoy this and other "simple" works of Ken Loach - a "modern Honore de Balzac" of cinema.