Rent The Old Oak (2023)

Loach's final film is a frustrating but moving, scattershot but heartfelt last rallying call - The Old Oak review by TB

After a career full of visceral & trailblazing films (Kes, Cathy Come Home & I, Daniel Blake being particular highlights as well as ushering in profound social change,) Ken Loach ends his career with a film about isolation, poverty & a community coming together. But whilst it starts strongly & has some exceptional performances, unfortunately it also runs head first into many of the clichés which Loach films can fall into, much to it's detriment.

Set in County Durham, a once thriving, wealthy & industrious part of Britain (due to the local colliery mine,) it is now a dilapidated former shell of itself, a metaphor for the state of the houses, shops & general employment in much of the North. Into this tinderbox, a large group of Syrian refugees is housed, in properties which have been sold for a pittance, thereby catastrophically devaluing the local population's homes. Much anger is directed not only at the Syrians, but at the 2 local residents (TJ & Laura,) who are helping them settle. The film then follows the families & locals as they integrate & interact.

There are many positives to this film, mainly the cast. As per usual with Loach films, the vast majority of the cast are not professional actors, but local people/new performers. This approach, when done well (as Loach has done time & time again,) produces incredible results. You feel like you are watching real people, because you are, not just actors who have read the script & spent a bit of time with a dialect coach to lock down the accent.

Loach has also found an incredible performer in Ebla Mari as Yara, the English speaking & most confident member of the Syrian refugees. She is the beating heart of the film & her delicate but powerful interactions with both TJ as well as the racist & aggressive residents is incredible. There is also the completely authentic feel of the local community, as well as the camaraderie that these close Northern towns have in abundance.

But this film also has many faults which genuinely frustrated me. One of the biggest is the simplistic way that some of the locals are written & developed as the film goes on. To start with, those who are hostile to the new arrivals are actually given some nuance & not just written as illiterate & "bone-headed knuckle dragging racists." But this approach only lasts so long, Loach & the scriptwriter Paul Laverty then making the people's reactions both more extreme & less plausible, almost as if they are concerned that to humanise those who are deeply troubled by the arrivals is to completely validate their beliefs.

So you have this group start to be written as being more & more extreme, both in their statements & actions, which doesn't ring true. And some of the legitimate concerns which they have, both in terms of security as well as the pressure on local services which will affect EVERYBODY, not just them, are either twisted or not dealt with at all.

Alongside this, there is a deliberate staging of the North/Northerns as being a miserable & intolerant people (playing up to the old cliché "It's grim up T'North.") I am a frequent visitor there, have lived with & had repeated interactions with many people from all over the North; this reputation is totally & completely wrong/false. Northerns are the most kindest, genuine & decent people you could meet. They are not in any significant way like the negative characters you see. And the perpetuation of this stereotype is one I resent.

The film does have a very moving & powerful ending, which does tie together many of the strands. But as the credits rolled, I did feel that this was a missed opportunity by Loach to actually make a film which not only asked some of the tough questions, but gave honest answers, not just the ones he most wanted to project.

A powerful, but flawed final film from one of Britain's greatest directors.