The Navigators

84.000

A Loach film that has really stuck with me. Over the course of a movie, he manages to show each painful micro-step of how privatization makes life more and more crummy. The workers' distinctive personalities keep things wry and light, but don't expect a Full Monty-style happy ending for them. Great for learning what the word "neoliberalism" means in concrete detail--I frequently encounter eerily similar situations in my own life, long after watching.

Good film.

Hard not to draw comparisons between this and Loach's "Riff-Raff". A social-realist ensemble drama about manual labourers, with very clear socialist sensibilities but a sober, observational tone. Loach builds up an unshakable credibility that pays off with a life-sized but impactful, disturbing finale.