My Name Is Joe

After coming into conflict over a young couple troubled by debt and drug-dependency, amateur soccer coach and recovering alcoholic Joe (Mullan) and health service worker Sarah (Goodall) find themselves embarking on a mutually wary but fulfilling romance; the trouble is, they have different ideas about how to deal with the problems posed by the unforgiving world around them. Very funny, typically insightful and authentic, and surprisingly sexy (for a Loach movie), this also proceeds to an emotionally quite devastating conclusion, where Renoir's thesis that 'everyone has their reasons' is put painfully to the test. The performances are uniformly superb (though Mullan is especially charismatic), and the direction discreet but wonderfully telling.