My Name Is Joe (1998)
Directed by Ken Loach
Two thirtysomethings, unemployed former alcoholic Joe and community health worker Sarah, start a romantic relationship in one of the toughest Glasgow neighbourhoods.
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What critics compared My Name Is Joe to
There's always a knot of heartache in the films of Ken Loach ("Riff Raff," "My Name Is Joe"), always a sense that the best, most earnest plans are inevitably crushed by a system that robs the underclass of its due.
In My Name Is Joe , a recovering alcoholic yearns for a new life in an impoverished neighborhood in Glasgow; in Carla's Song , a well-intentioned bus driver goes to extreme lengths to prove his love for a woman from war-torn Nicaragua; and in Bread and Roses , a Mexican woman working for a cleaning company in Los Angeles is empowered by a struggle for better wages and benefits.
But when he's good and sticks very close to the ground he's capable of great films, such as Kes, Land and Freedom or My Name Is Joe .
Paul Laverty pens his fourth Loach film (including 1998's excellent "My Name is Joe") and once again his dialogue is faultless in its ability to stay street-level while also conveying the sorrow and hope integral to Loach's movies.
His domestic films â Riff-Raff, My Name Is Joe â are funnier and subtler, but even in some of these, Loach, like many middle-class champions of the poor and oppressed, has a habit of defining his working-class characters solely by their oppression, either idealizing them (in the awful Hidden Agenda) or rendering them so degraded by their circumstances (Ladybird, Ladybird) that itâs hard to find anything to like in them at all.
Initially, the credit for this goes to screenwriter Paul Laverty, who's collaborated with Loach before, most notably on another Cannes prize-winner, 1998's "My Name Is Joe."
Scottish actor-director Peter Mullan, best known as the titular alcoholic in Ken Loach's My Name Is Joe, based this film on the true stories of young women locked away in the Magdalene asylums of Britain and Ireland, ostensibly to cure them of their wanton ways but more pointedly to hide them from their wanton Catholic kin.
An actor himself ("Trainspotting," "My Name is Joe"), Mullan encourages uniformly strong performances from his wonderful cast in roles that must have been physically and psychologically challenging.
Peter Mullan made his name starring in Ken Loach's "My Name is Joe", but his talents extend far beyond acting.
Mullan, who splits his time between directing and acting (he starred in the 1998 drama "My Name Is Joe"), gets solid performances from the newcomers.
In his second feature film, actor Peter Mullan (My Name Is Joe) has created an unflinching and compelling drama that will make your blood boil.
“Magdalene” is the latest directorial effort from actor Peter Mullan, and it plays exactly as brutal as the actor’s typical performances (“My Name Is Joe,” “The Claim,” “Miss Julie“).