Family Life

With certainty, my first acquaintance with one of the heavier parts of Loach's portfolio, is a gripping one. Actually, the weight of the heartlessness that is so deeply anchored in Loach's characters reaches an immensity that makes me tired. You eventually get sick of swimming around in a constant swamp of unempathic lines. A raw and brilliant depiction of the maddening differences between generations som 40-odd years ago. And historically as important as any film, really.

I'm not sure that I buy that Janice's parents are real people. The acting is thoroughly convincing, though, with the scene in which Bill Dean, the girl's father, tries to explain himself to the psychologist being a highlight. In general, the film has some excellent individual moments, and while Loach's delivery of his important message about the ostracization of those who refuse to conform came off as too heavy-handed, it still works quite well as a scathing and very depressing social critique.

ken loach has a way of portraying just how absolutely dreadful is life in society and all of its institutions: family, school, workplace. this is also a realistic look at parent-child relations in the early 70's and a staunch critique of mental hospitals and mental health treatments that were the norm in this time

I do so love these social realist films from Britain. Loach, like Leigh, is very adept at tackling serious societal problems without ever coming across as preachy or condescending. Family Life is a complex and devastating film, very subtle and grounded, with naturalistic dialogue and believable characters, all of which serves to heighten its effectiveness as both a heartbreaking and enraging drama.

It's everything Girl, Interrupted should have been. Extraordinarily real, even for Loach, save for an ending that ranges on ridiculous.

Extraordinarily gripping social study from Loach, centering on a battle of wills between Ratcliff's teenage girl and her parents, Dean and Cave, who mercifully stop just short of caricature, but prove masters at portraying the slings and daggers that can be flung between parents and their children. 40 years has not dated the film's message one iota; equal praise should go to Loach's stripped-bare, documentary-like direction and the amazingly naturalistic performances from a cast of unknowns.

Devastating examination of how awkward and damaging it can be to a young person's mental state when they can't decide between conformity or non-conformity, amplified by the rise of the counter-culture and the excitement/conflict surrounding it. Constantly aiming for a more positive outlook only to be hit back two steps with a concrete slap to the face, I was hoping for some sort of therapeutic ending to this film instead of the painfully self-reflexive one I was treated to. Damn....

76.500

Melhor filme antipsiquiatria e anti-familia nuclear burguesa EVER!

The film felt a bit disjointed in its telling -that may have been a deliberate to mirror Janice’s experience of the world. Family Life reflects attitudes of the 1970’s-in terms of generational relationships and mental illness-but is still a powerful watch.

Nervous breakdowns are a recurring theme in realist dramas of that era, worldwide, but Loach's Family Life, quite in keeping with the British "Kitchen Sink" movement with which it is associated, is exceptionally political among them. It is a clear indictment of a sexually repressed older generation trying to brand its rebellious baby-boomer young as "gone crazy". This becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy as Janice cracks under moralizing pressure by her parents and mental health professionals.

This film is overrated. First and foremost, the acting is so unbearably fucking awful that it comes off more as a comedy than a drama. I almost felt like I was watching an early lost John Waters film. It's so bad that it was impossible for me to suspend disbelief. Sometimes a 20 something can play a teenager and pull it off--Sandy Ratcliff can't. That aside, the cinematography is drab, boring, and somewhat pretentious. The writing is predictable and boring as well. I wish I understood the hype.