Ken Loach is The Old Oak of British cinema.
From the 1960s onwards, Loach has been a constant. He has survived numerous political slings and arrows, blacklisting and smear campaigns, let alone the various trends and fashions of cinemagoers. He has done so standing proud, possessing admirable strength and endurance as he tells his truth and advocates for fairness and justice, always with an unwavering commitment and an impressive, indefatigable stability. At 87, The Old Oak may be, if weโฆ
I never ever thought that any article I'd write would end up published on a site alongside articles by Chomsky and John Pilger yet here we are!
America's left leaning, leading libertarian news outlet ZNetwork have published my review of Nobody Loves You and You Don't Deserve to Exist in which I say that Brett Gregory's low budget, semi-autobiographical movie is a justified indictment of neoliberalism, a policy I argue is killing the working class.
Read it on ZNetwork.
To hell with those typically batshit last minute plot twists from Christie, the real astonishing thing here is that Marlene Dietrich was 55!
I hadn't seen this since I was a teenager. I liked it more then. It's far from my favourite Christie or Wilder, but it's nonetheless an entertaining affair, and one of the maim reasons for that is the great Charles Laughton on playful form as the wily barrister Sir Wilfrid, easily a forerunner to John Mortimer's beloved Rumpole of the Bailey.
Praise too for Tyrone Power whose great performance often gets unfairly overlooked thanks to the eye-catching Dietrich and Laughton.
St Helens Disability Advice and Welfare Network, St Helens Jobcentre, Ashton-In-Makerfield Jobcentre, Huyton Jobcentre, Apex Charitable Trust, Shaw Trust St Helens, Starting Point St Helens.
Just some of the places I've worked at that involve helping people into work, getting people 'job ready' or dealing with people's benefit claims.
Jobseekers allowance, Incapacity benefit, Employment and Support allowance, Carers allowance.
Just some of the benefits I've claimed since (and between) those jobs.
I've ran jobclubs, CV making courses and jobmatch programmes,โฆ
40 minutes.
18 killings.
3 lines of dialogue.
No structure, seemingly.
No rhyme or reason, seemingly.
Just the elephant in the room.
A brutal uncompromising look at Sectarian assassination that dramatises genuine events and forces you to consider the Troubles in a way that acres of news coverage cannot. Just what is your gut reaction at the end of it? Does the endless cadence of footfall and gunfire go some way to desensitise you or does it make you realiseโฆ
