Opens: December 26
Genre: Social realist drama
Duration: 100 minutes

British veteran Ken Loach and his regular screenwriter Paul Laverty have lost none of their ability to tell a story that starts quietly and by the end has the viewer boiling with rage. His last feature, I, Daniel Blake, won Loach his second Cannes Palme d’Or, not because of its polished film craft (his realist visual style has remained stubbornly non-lyrical) but its devastating emotional effect.

Sorry We Missed YouSorry We Missed You. Photo © Joss Barratt

This follow-up is a kind of companion piece, not only because it was also filmed in Newcastle with a cast of unknowns, but also because it again centres on a proud individual trying his hardest to satisfy the demands of a ruthless system before realising there is no way out.
In Blake, the system was a degraded welfare state turned hostile. Here it’s the “gig economy”, i.e. a system of contracted labour that strips employees of workers’ rights including collective bargaining.

Protagonist Ricky (Kris Hitchen) is a 40-something married father of two who leaps at the chance to attain a smidgeon of independence when...