Working from a fact-based screenplay by his longtime collaborator Paul Laverty, Loach addresses a theme that resonates throughout his work: the effect of the political on the personal.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 19, 2015

Loach is clearly on Gralton's side, but he's remarkably evenhanded about it. Norton is a formidable villain, while Ward is just vulnerable enough to make the showdown dramatically persuasive.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 6, 2015

If you ever thought Footloose might've been improved with an Irish brogue and a short pour of agitprop, then by all means look to this latest from Ken Loach, Britain's elder statesman of cinema and its evergreen champion of the working class.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 30, 2015

As dramatically stilted as Jimmy's Hall is, it has an undeniably appealing integrity ...

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 17, 2015

There's humanity here, on all sides, and a gentle wisdom beneath the raging rhetoric.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 16, 2015

While this deeply romanticized and fictionalized account of a little-known underdog might not serve you in any trivia capacities, it's also a worthy and loving story of humanity in the face of oppression.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 16, 2015

A great cast along with Loach's trademark realism and capable storytelling deliver a tale of quiet power, with an ending that is sure to deliver of a jolt of righteous outrage.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 16, 2015

An unusual story, vividly and intelligently told, and one that leaves you with a stirring sense of joy, injustice and hope. If this truly is the end for Loach, he'll be missed.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 13, 2015

The portrait of Gralton and his comrades is so rich and heartfelt that one might easily overlook all the moralizing.

| Jul 9, 2015

In many ways, "Jimmy's Hall" shows what the pursuit of happiness can look like, and why it's worth a revolution to protect it.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 9, 2015

This isn't a nuanced, sober work. It's a film that stacks the deck ideologically, but does so with such energy and freewheeling charm that you roll with it.

| Jul 4, 2015

By trying to give Jimmy's Hall the gravitas of a national struggle, Loach obscures his story. Elegant but uneven, Jimmy's Hall becomes one history lesson too much.

| Jul 3, 2015

While it may not represent entirely accurate history, it depicts a set of values and actions the filmmaker clearly holds dear, and does so with commendable engagement.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 3, 2015

One of the pleasures of "Jimmy's Hall," a likable period piece directed by the social-realist British filmmaker Ken Loach, is its unswerving belief in old-fashioned populist heroes.

| Jul 2, 2015

[A] charming but surprisingly soft-focus movie ...

| Jul 2, 2015

With "Jimmy's Hall," Ken Loach creates a quiet but compelling drama about a real-life story.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 2, 2015

Footloose set in 1930s Ireland, basically, with jazz in lieu of Kenny Loggins.

| Original Score: C+ | Jul 2, 2015

Like the shot of folks on bicycles pedaling away in support of their folk hero Jimmy at the film's conclusion, it's real populism at work.

| Jul 1, 2015

There's an essential kindness about "Jimmy's Hall," so it's no surprise that it wrings real hope from a downbeat conclusion.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 30, 2015

Ken Loach's staging is so calm and sober that it turns his story into an expertly photographed yet weirdly remote rebellion tale.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 27, 2015