Inspiring story in which a town of unemployed miners and a group of Syrian refugees discover how big is their we.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 9, 2025

Loach and his screenwriter Paul Lavery are sometimes painfully on-the-nose, borderline parodic, in their contrived kitchen sink sensibilities.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 18, 2024

Much like Bannatyne and the food initiative give hope to the town, The Old Oak is a beacon of hope in an otherwise cruel and vicious world where, as suggested by the movie, people have to choose between affording heating or food .

| Original Score: 5/5 | Sep 15, 2024

The welcome humanism of Loach but broached with clumsy and overused overtness. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Sep 6, 2024

[Loach] is capable of building praiseworthy characters, who live beyond the screen and endowing them with a painful, aggrieved, hardened humanity. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 6, 2024

Of course, there is a message of hope with which Loach decides to end his film. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 4/4 | Sep 5, 2024

Ken Loach's cinema has always been transparent in its position regarding the social and economic injustices faced by the working classes of the United Kingdom. He directs what is perhaps his last film, with a hopeful breath. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 22, 2024

Loach has built a career fighting the good fight, and continues to do so, even at this point in his life.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Aug 10, 2024

If this is to be Loach's last film, then it's a fine one to end with.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 5, 2024

Like fellow English filmmakers of the same generation, Loach’s refined cinematic skills across twenty-six features should not be overlooked: passion, and compassion, are part of every element of his work. [Loach] is ever hopeful

| Original Score: 9/10 | Jul 4, 2024

Socialism is everywhere you look. Paved streets, street lights, bridges, plumbing and running water, are all socialist constructs. Getting your head out of your ass is just the first step toward a better world. "The Old Oak" is a fine place to start.

| Original Score: FIVE STARS | Jul 1, 2024

Using the power of photography to create a bridge between people with quite different life experiences is probably the most subtle thing in Paul Laverty’s screenplay, which is otherwise from the “subtext is for cowards” school of writing.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Jun 24, 2024

A humanistic sob story preaching hope even if there's little hope.

| Original Score: B | Jun 18, 2024

The final scene of “The Old Oak” reduced me, once again and for the final time, to tears.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 14, 2024

Features first-rate performances by Dave Turner and Ebla Mari, plus gorgeous cinematography by Robbie Ryan. Ken Loach gives us another moving drama with rich characters that we can all relate to in one form or another.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 26, 2024

[It's] a reminder that when grief and loss don’t bring out the worst in people, they can bring out the best.

| May 9, 2024

It is unmistakably a Loach film: taciturn yet forthright, examining life in the cracks of a fractured society with deep compassion, plain-spoken anger and, perhaps more so than in the previous two films, a shot of hope.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 3, 2024

It’s a fable that ties up too neatly to be believed, and it’s a story I’m tired of hearing.

| Original Score: 2/4 | May 3, 2024

"If The Old Oak is, as Loach has been threatening, really Loach’s final film, it will be a strong summation of his work: a film about community and solidarity in places you wouldn’t expect from people who can barely care for themselves."

| May 1, 2024

a fitting capper to Loach’s career...Turner is perfectly cast as the man with empathy...a savvily crafted protagonist whose listening gift as a bartender allows the audience an understanding of the less-than-welcoming locals.

| Original Score: B+ | Apr 29, 2024