Author: Andres Kabel

Never miss a Ken Loach film, I’ve always said, and “Sorry We Missed You” is a coruscating film which packs an emotional wallop. This time Loach takes on the franchise-style gig economy, focusing on Ricky, a northern English construction worker who enslaves himself to a package delivery firm under usurious conditions, and his embattled social worker wife, Abbie. Throw in two children, one of them a rebellious graffiti’ing teenage boy, grind out the ruthlessly programmed strictures of Ricky’s new job, factor in Ricky’s temper and Abbie’s saintliness, and Loach cooks up a horrifying plot of enfolding disasters. Kris Hitchen is superb as Ricky, Debbie Honeywood is understated but powerful, Rhys Stone brilliantly portrays the son, and Ross Brewster makes for an absolutely believable monster boss. As ever, Loach provides a forensic scene-by-scene dissection of the courier business without burdening the viewer. I was riveted even though the gloom is unrelenting. Is Sorry We Missed You a highlight of Loach’s long and distinguished career? I’m willing to bet it is.

Season 2 of “Criminal UK” is an excellent follow-up, located on the same moody set of interrogation room, spying room, and corridor outside; underpinned by an unchanged format of intense interview intended to crack a possible crook. Nothing is telegraphed, no back story intrudes, the dynamics between the four or five police/legal crew slide in beside the main action. Four standalone episodes this time: a convicted murderer’s wife grilled about a new lead; a sleazebag alpha male and a possible post-work rape; an online vigilante; and a murderer negotiating victim locations. As in the first season, the actors playing the prosecutorial team, inevitably often overshadowed by the centerpiece suspects, are wonderful. Standouts are again Katherine Kelly and Lee Ingleby (whom I have just admired in The A Word). But Criminal UK stands or falls with the grandstanding suspects, and while all four performances in Season 2 are fine, let me single out Sophie Okonedo in a nuanced, horrifying reveal, and Kunnal Nayyar’s chilling psychopath portrayal. My only regret with this season of Criminal UK is that Netflix seems to have foresaken Criminal France, Criminal Germany, and Criminal Spain.

Watch this and weep and rage and keen with hope, and then act. David Attenborough’s witness statement, “A Life on Our Planet,” is his crowning achievement over a lifetime of outstanding work. Working through his life chronologically, and injecting every now and then three key metrics – global population, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and the percentage of wildlife still existing – in a stark fusillade of factual bullets, the 93-year-old mines his 60-year autobiography to inform and preach. Attenborough is thoroughly honest about his lack of early comprehension about the unfolding climate and biodiversity catastrophe and thoroughly honest about our united culpability. Towards the end, he outlines the obvious ameliorative steps – an urgent shift to zero-carbon energy, a moratorium on land and sea loss, and a program of plant/animal rewilding – with that commanding voice of his, and I swear it, I didn’t know whether to wilt or awaken. Both, probably. A Life on Our Planet is, in my modest estimation, the one 2020 film essential above all others.

“My Octopus Teacher” is a stunning documentary, one that is almost too outlandish to describe but turns out to be a touchstone of human engagement with a non-human. When free diver Craig Foster commences a year of an ascetic daily practice of diving into a kelp forest near Cape Town, he finds not only beauty but a small, endlessly fascinating octopus with whom he strikes a short-lived (octopuses don’t live long) relationship based on proximity and regularity. Foster observes stunning behaviors, amazing beauty, and the creature’s battles to stay alive among sharks. The narrative alternates the stunning kelp forest scenes and the lucid, yet emotive talking head of Foster. The filmic narrative unfolds in a tightly controlled, subtle arc, and not a second is wasted. Engaging both intellect and emotion, My Octopus Teacher is destined to be a classic amongst artistic works celebrated our connections with nature. Moving and riveting.