My Name Is Joe (1998)

Really Surprised!

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

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.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

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. A first "date" bowling proves a fun night one and tentatively they start a relationship together. However while they try to form their own perfect little place with their feelings being more important than anything else, the harsh realities of life start to pressure them as Liam gets in deeper and deeper trouble with a local drug dealer over his wife's debts.Ken Loach is not really a man to come to if you are looking for an easy romantic comedy. Although My Name is Joe has tender moments and some quite sensual scenes, it is very much set in the world of the losers, the people we call scum, the people we never see. In that regard it is a typical mix of the good and bad of the human spirit crossed with the rough humour and pitfalls of being near or on the poverty line. They are not themes that we haven't seen before but as usual, Loach does it really well – drawing us in so that even a world we have no knowledge of is convincing and real. The story may not be an everyday tale of the daily grind but it is engaging and real all the same. Loach's direction helps this as he delivers every scene with a natural air and he draws out good performances from his cast.Mullan rightly hogs the limelight with a performance that is charming without losing sight of the pit that his character is barely out of. He is natural and he drives the film forward from the heart. Goodall works well alongside him. She is as wary as one would expect of her character but yet she has a good yet cautious chemistry with Mullan. McKay has a simpler character but he carries it off really well and just about keeps him sympathetic. The rest of the cast are very much secondary but there are also good performances from Kennedy, Lewis and others.Overall this is not a fun night in but then you already knew that. What it does do is to paint a poignant story of love on the bread line, of the struggles of poverty and addiction and it does it all in a way that is natural and engaging. Bleak and uplifting at the same time and a fine example of what it is that Ken Loach does well.

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. He has fallen in love with Sarah (Louis Goodall), a health worker, and wants to go straight but circumstances conspire against him. He is determined to help his friend Liam (David McKay) when he gets behind on his payments to a drug dealer but his options are limited and he is forced to make a choice that threatens the stability of his fragile relationship.Mullan won the Best Actor award at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival and it is fully deserved. We know that Joe's problems are overwhelming but we root for him to make it in spite of the odds because of his warmth and humor and generosity towards others. Joe has been sober for a year and attends sessions of Alcoholics Anonymous. He also coaches the local soccer team composed of unemployed workers who have won only one game the entire year. When he meets Sarah, a social worker for the Health Department who is visiting Liam and his wife Sabine (Anne-Marie Kennedy) and young child, things start to look up. We do not learn much about Sarah's past but it is obvious that the two have discovered each other at a crucial point in their life.In a powerful scene, Sarah asks Joe why he stopped drinking and he tells her how he had beaten a woman he was dating and has never forgiven himself. Both are very tentative about getting involved but they are also drawn to each other and can think about the future for the first time. Sadly, the world has other plans. Sabine is a heroin addict who used the drugs she was supposed to sell and is in serious debt to a local drug dealer McGowan (David Hayman), an old friend of Joe's. When the mobster boss demands that Liam cover his wife's debt or they will break his legs, Joe tries to moderate and ends up striking a deal with the mob, leading to a series of unfortunate events. In one of the most emotionally gripping scenes, Sarah berates Joe for lying to her and he responds "Some of us don't have a choice. Some of us don't have a f***ing choice." The mean streets of Ruchill are strewn with the results of urban decay and Loach does not spare us the details. He even mocks the image of bonnie Scotland with a scene involving a kilt-clad bagpiper playing the same three songs over and over for a group of tourists. Combining gritty realism with humor, My Name is Joe has an outstanding script by Paul Laverty and fully dimensional characters that transcend clichés. Loach does not pass judgment on his characters or directly condemn society for their failings. It is a work of compassion and humanity.

The awesome realism of "Once Were Warriors" (New Zealand, 1994), successfully transposed to Glasgow, Scotland.Solid, decent human beings use alcohol and drugs to "cope" with life. But, life only gets worse, loyalties are brutally tested, and one poor unfortunate will not survive. But, don't think this to be another flaccid piece of cliched, anti-drug drivel. No, this film speaks powerfully to the perverse, and often vicious, arbitrariness of life. Darwinians, of course, will be unmoved. The rest of us, however, will be chilled by the scale of our impotence in making this world a better place. Prepare yourself to feel humbled.

With dogme-esque style, "My Name is Joe" takes the audience to Scotland and into a pivotal slice of life of one alcoholic Scot...a man named Joe who, nearing midlife, finds himself still struggling for some semblance of success and happiness. Earnest, honest, and realistic apply to both film and character in this look at the seamier side of Scottish life. An excellent watch for those who enjoy realistic Euro-flicks.