The Angels's Share

What a treat to discover that Ken Loach, the 76 year-old English director of gritty, bleak ultra-realistic socially-conscious dramas, would have such a light, amusing take on a heist picture! The Angels' Share still contains most of the elements that make Loach’s work distinctive--it is a naturalistic story about working class people trying to play the hand they’ve been dealt from a deck stacked against them--but it is also flirts with the kind of fantasy and comedic elements of modern crime fiction one would find in the work of Martin McDonagh or even Guy Ritchie.

If I were to describe the plot of this picture, it would seem like a bag of clichés slapped together by a director in his mid twenties. But Loach and screenwriter Paul Laverty’s story meanders pleasantly around its traditional narrative beats and backs into corners that prevent it from feeling contrived. The filmmakers blend genres the way a master distiller blends whiskey---it seems familiar at first taste but is actually quite special when you take the time to savor it. For his young Glaswegian petty criminal protagonists, Loach has assembled his usual splendid cast of unknowns who feel like they are the characters they are playing. Especially good is Paul Brannigan who makes the lead role of Robbie, a violent, three-time looser who has just become a first-time father, into immensely sympathetic character.

Like so many films about class and politics in these last few years, The Angels' Share dispenses with any subtext about morals or ideals and concentrates on pure human behaviors. The themes of this film sneak up on you as much as the humor does, even though you are expecting both to be on full display at nearly every turn in the story. This is perhaps as close as the uncompromising Loach will ever get to a Hollywood movie or a straight-up genre picture. The Angels' Share is a neo-realist fable that makes its points with a light-handed but deft touch.