By

I, Daniel Blake

A quietly ferocious human drama from Ken Loach

At 59, Daniel Blake (Dave Johns) suffers a minor heart attack and is no longer allowed to work. But he’s eligible for benefits if he can somehow navigate the crippling Tory bureaucracy, where those officials being paid to help the citizenry seem to be the most obstructive. As he falls through the cracks, he finds an ally/fellow victim in a single mother of two (Hayley Squires). Warm and at times funny and then abruptly heartbreaking, this unflashy, deeply humanistic drama of tender desolation from muckraker Ken Loach was the surprise winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2016. (100 min)