My Name Is Joe

The reflection of the boom microphone is visible in the television set when Sarah is talking with Sabine at the school.

My Name Is Joe (1998) was directed by Ken Loach. The movie is set in a down-and-out Glasgow neighborhood.

This film was perhaps too gritty and dark for my tastes and I was grateful to have subtitles as the thick accents were really quite difficult to understand, but it is a good story, even if there isn't a complete ending?There is something very charming about Peter Mullan's character and he could almost be described as cute, but this film goes to show how fragile some lives are and how some people are walking on a knife edge.

I liked this film. I like jo too.

When Joe tell her about alcoholic past Sarah says 'you've never forgiven yourself... I know that how its feel'' and we can not learn Sarah's story.

Great acting from Peter Mullan especially, but the whole cast puts in a shift. The accents can be hard to understand, so it's a shame there's no subs option.

Joe is an alcoholic, manager of the worst amateur football team in Glasgow and generally a good man getting through life one day at a time. When he gets involved in a dispute with health worker Sarah over one of his team (Liam) it serves as an introduction to one another.

Ken Loach has been making films about working class families for many years and My Name is Joe is one of his most powerful. Peter Mullan is instantly likable as Joe Kavanagh, a recovering alcoholic from Ruchill, a decaying suburb of Glasgow, who has a lot at stake.

Ken Loach seems to be ploughing the same trough again and again. My Name Is Joe is a well-made, occasionally funny and sometimes moving film, but it does nothing that his other films don't do better.

Powerful, honest, emotional, funny, important. This film is everything that a work of art should be.