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<blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 442835" data-attributes="member: 23"><p style="text-align: center"><strong><span style="font-size: 22px">The Old Oak</span></strong> (2023)</p> <p style="text-align: center"></p> <p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.whatsonnetwork.co.uk%2Fuploads%2F800x600%2Fa59b1b09d303e0054d0265a6183b2d26.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=6daa6a16c14ae82a0a7d4598b5a14e891eb26728f3b167d8423e63dea9629d00" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="width: 810px" /></p><p></p><p>If I haven't missed something in my hasty scroll back through this thread, the last film I watched was back in April, which is a very poor state of affairs. Blame it on the fine summer.</p><p></p><p>Ken Loach's final film is filled with the grit and naturalism you'd expect. Indeed, the film's IMDb page is refreshingly free of images of actors, and looks like a blank canvas. Many of those featured have a very small number of films, and this film is the only credit for some. In the best possible way, this film looks as though people from this village were asked to just show up and be themselves. Yes, there's an occasional sense that being in front of the camera is not someone's natural habitat, but overall it feels documentary like in its reality. The film's opening encapsulates this: a series of photos over which recordings can be heard of people commenting on immigration. I'm still not 100% sure the sound wasn't people being captured giving their honest view, such was the naturalism.</p><p></p><p>Ostensibly, the film is about immigration, but it's just one of many layers. The poverty-stricken village into which a family of Syrians is moved is already struggling in part from the end to the mining industry with nothing to replace it. Facilities have closed down</p><p></p><p>There's a lot to unpack here. It's a film about community; struggling; segregation and integration; connection; disappointment; charity; grief and loss. Someone in the film talks about "hope and strength", and there's plenty of that here, too. Ultimately, like most if not all of Loache's work, it's a film about people, and we see the worst and the best of humanity.</p><p></p><p>Although made in 2023, this feels as though it captures an earlier time. Certainly from a 2026 perspective, it feels almost like a period piece, from a time before divisions widened further still, and when this country provided an invaluable refuge for people genuinely (and reluctantly) escaping war in their countries (which, if headlines are to be believed, seems to be less and less the case in more recent days).</p><p></p><p>It's an interesting combination, this film. It (mostly) steers clear of blatant sentimentality but is still awash with humanity and an almost painful underlying fragility that kept me feeling strangely emotional with it neither coming to fruition nor being fully explainable. It just reached out and connected with me. There's one gesture towards the end that feels almost untruthful in its scale, but my investment by that point was not easily shaken.</p><p style="text-align: center"></p> <p style="text-align: center"></p> <p style="text-align: center">[MEDIA=youtube]Fwb0c5zqsyM[/MEDIA]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Mel O'Drama, post: 442835, member: 23"] [CENTER][B][SIZE=6]The Old Oak[/SIZE][/B] (2023) [IMG width="810px"]https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.whatsonnetwork.co.uk%2Fuploads%2F800x600%2Fa59b1b09d303e0054d0265a6183b2d26.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=6daa6a16c14ae82a0a7d4598b5a14e891eb26728f3b167d8423e63dea9629d00[/IMG][/CENTER] If I haven't missed something in my hasty scroll back through this thread, the last film I watched was back in April, which is a very poor state of affairs. Blame it on the fine summer. Ken Loach's final film is filled with the grit and naturalism you'd expect. Indeed, the film's IMDb page is refreshingly free of images of actors, and looks like a blank canvas. Many of those featured have a very small number of films, and this film is the only credit for some. In the best possible way, this film looks as though people from this village were asked to just show up and be themselves. Yes, there's an occasional sense that being in front of the camera is not someone's natural habitat, but overall it feels documentary like in its reality. The film's opening encapsulates this: a series of photos over which recordings can be heard of people commenting on immigration. I'm still not 100% sure the sound wasn't people being captured giving their honest view, such was the naturalism. Ostensibly, the film is about immigration, but it's just one of many layers. The poverty-stricken village into which a family of Syrians is moved is already struggling in part from the end to the mining industry with nothing to replace it. Facilities have closed down There's a lot to unpack here. It's a film about community; struggling; segregation and integration; connection; disappointment; charity; grief and loss. Someone in the film talks about "hope and strength", and there's plenty of that here, too. Ultimately, like most if not all of Loache's work, it's a film about people, and we see the worst and the best of humanity. Although made in 2023, this feels as though it captures an earlier time. Certainly from a 2026 perspective, it feels almost like a period piece, from a time before divisions widened further still, and when this country provided an invaluable refuge for people genuinely (and reluctantly) escaping war in their countries (which, if headlines are to be believed, seems to be less and less the case in more recent days). It's an interesting combination, this film. It (mostly) steers clear of blatant sentimentality but is still awash with humanity and an almost painful underlying fragility that kept me feeling strangely emotional with it neither coming to fruition nor being fully explainable. It just reached out and connected with me. There's one gesture towards the end that feels almost untruthful in its scale, but my investment by that point was not easily shaken. [CENTER] [MEDIA=youtube]Fwb0c5zqsyM[/MEDIA][/CENTER] [/QUOTE]
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