Best movie of this year hands down!

Admirable film.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Back home I watched "I, Daniel Blake". Quite a different film from the impression created by the trailer. In the trailer, you're shown all the upbeat stand-fast rebellious moments; you're given the feeling this plucky little man will prevail. In the film, you experience the grinding soul-devastating hopelessness of desperate poverty through the eyes of a good simple man suddenly at the mercy of a bureaucracy that's forgotten how to care. An excellent film with fine performances by Dave Johns & Hayley Squires, but not one I ever want to watch again. Just too damn real.

Got misty-eyed and heart-sore. Movie was very good at pulling at my heartstrings. But then, when it was over, when I had time to reflect and collect myself, I realized I had been used, abused and manipulated by a shrewd, Marxist ideologue, Ken Loach, the Roach. Daniel Blake was not a doomed loser. He had marketable skills, which should have given him the ability to determine his own future and independence. In the US he wouldn't have been at the mercy of the grim, grey UK welfare state. In the US he could have made a living with his hands, by being a self-employed fix-it man and/or craftsman of furniture and wood mobiles. He could have set up shop in his garage, not been buried under forms and denied his dignity. He might have listened to Merle Haggard or Lynyrd Skynyrd, not some doomy, gloomy crap on a cassette. No such optimism, individualism or self-reliance is allowed under the Queen or House of Lords, according to Commie Ken. Roach Loach is the problem, not the solution. He is the cause of human misery, not its cure. His far-left Marxism crushes the human spirit and makes us all victims, not heroes. When will we learn? His socialist ideology has failed over and over throughout the 20th century (USSR, China, Cuba, Venezuela, ad nauseam.) The answer is not reform of the welfare state, but its abolition. The answer is to empower humans, not enslave them to government. The sun has set on the British Empire. It deserves no pity, just contempt.

When this movie won the best picture at Cannes, eyes were raised, attention sought, and interest generated. Ken Loach at 80 years still holds the fervor of activism of working class people struggling to meet ends. Ken narrates the apathy the bureaucratic system and processes inflict on a needy person through the eyes of two characters - One is Daniel Blake (played subtly by Dave Johns) and other is Katie Morgan (played by Hayley Squires.Due to heart-attack Daniel Blake is denied to do his current carpentry work, but is fit to do other odd jobs if he want subsistence allowance from government. There starts his battle with the job-center bureaucracy and here he meets Katie a single mother of two kids (girl - 9 years, boy - 7 years) who has newly arrived to New Castle and is late for the job-center interview. Daniel helps, supports, cares and gives emotional hand-holding for Katie to settle down comfortably. With no luck going in favor of either of them, Katie ends up doing a escort (prostitution) job, whereas Daniel ends up selling all his household belonging to survive - for getting two sets of meals for him.There is a also small sub-plot to lighten up the screen-time - of Daneil's neighbor China (Kena Sikazwe) who sells Chinese goods illegally.There are many outstanding dialogues and scenes that render your heart with mushy compassion for these characters. A note written by Daniel is read out in the end of the movie by Katie at his funeral ceremony, that sums up the core of the movie - the suffocating bureaucracy.:"And I swear that this lovely man, had so much more to give, and that the State drove him to an early grave."One scene in particular needs special mention because it won the most powerful scene award for the year. It is when Katie sends her daughter to give some food to Daniel, who refuses to open the door and the girls asks him "Dan, when you came and helped us, why can't we help you back?" and Daniel opens the door and breaks down hugging the child. ABSOLUTELY SOUL STIRRING!There were rumors that government,might censor the movie and lots of media debates around existing pathetic government system. The movie garnered good support and appreciation from both - people and the critics respectively. It ended up doing very good business. The relationship Daniel (60 years) and Katie (27 years) share is the best part of the movie. There is a huge age difference between the two, and they do not share romantic LOVE, but they LOVE each other deeply, and feel for each other emotionally. That humanity jumps out alive in their characters on screen.Director Ken Loach and writer Paul Laverty research a lot about the problems of people on government apathy towards the job seekers and felt this story that reflect so many people's lives needs to be told. It surely resonates...!(I would give the movie 7.5 out of 10)

This grim realist drama succeeds in putting some humanity into the austerity/benefits debate, but Ken Loach undoes the impact of his polemical film with simplistic emotional manipulation. Indeed, Loach's agenda interferes and reduces his storytelling to mere melodrama at least twice.Take the scene in which a starving Katie visits a foodbank; she is surrounded by fruit, bread and vegetables, yet she messily eats cold beans out of a tin and bursts out crying in shame. Why would she eat this when she could choose food that's far easier to eat? Because Ken Loach wants us to feel bad, that's why.And then there's the ending, which sees Daniel and Katie meeting with an adviser who's confident that he can win his appeal. However, just as the film's mood starts to finally buoy, Daniel keels over and dies in the bathroom. Predictable, very predictable. It's surprising that a veteran director like Loach would use such hackneyed emotional manipulation.