“Wasting my time, employers' time, your time. And all it does is humiliate me, grind me down. Or is that the point?”
This week, in a very special bumper episode of Spoiler, we’re watching Ken Loach’s 2016 drama ‘I, Daniel Blake’ and the team are all in agreement that it is one of the most important films of its era. With strong opinions coming from all sides, emotions run high as we discuss the benefits system, food banks, homelessness and dignity. Paul asks whether the depiction of job centre employees in ‘I, Daniel Blake’ is fair and Andy, who has been through several periods of unemployment, shares some of his own experiences of the system. Rachael celebrates the film’s refusal to pander to stereotypical expectations regarding the unemployed and everyone doffs their caps to the performances of Hayley Squires and Dave Johns, who make a film that could have seemed relentlessly bleak into something genuinely entertaining. Paul shares some of his much loved IMDB trivia about job centre water-coolers and the whole team share the specific moments in the film where they shed tears, including the already-famous food bank scene.
Elsewhere, Andy takes a look at some other screen depictions of unemployment including ‘Bicycle Thieves’, ‘Drifting Clouds’ and ‘Boys from the Blackstuff’.
This week’s scale: Why Aye, Daniel Blake or Nay Chance, Daniel Blake
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The SPOILER Awards - Lockdown Special (Episode 56)
Pride (2014, Ben Schnetzer, Dominic West, Andrew Scott): SPOILER Episode 55
Dark Season 1 (2017, Netflix Original Series): SPOILER Episode 54
Top Gun (1985, Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer): SPOILER Episode 53
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1902): SPOILER Episode 52
Bohemian Rhapsody (2018, Rami Malek, Lucy Boynton, Gwilym Lee): SPOILER Episode 51
Singin' in the Rain (1952, Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O'Connor): SPOILER Episode 50
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008, Dir: Steven Spielberg, Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett): SPOILER Episode 49
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro (2015): SPOILER Episode 48
Ex Machina (2015, Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, Oscar Isaac): SPOILER Episode 46
Detectorists Series 1 (2014, Mackenzie Crook, Toby Jones, Rachael Stirling): SPOILER Episode 45
Labyrinth (1986, Jim Henson, Jennifer Connelly, David Bowie): SPOILER Episode 44
SPOILER Puppeteer Special: Nigel Plaskitt (Pipkins, Spitting Image, Little Shop of Horrors)
Boyhood (2014, Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke): SPOILER Episode 42
Amelie (2001, Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz): SPOILER Episode 41
Cool Hand Luke (1967, Paul Newman, George Kennedy): SPOILER Episode 40
Django Unchained (2012, Quentin Tarantino, Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio): SPOILER Episode 39
Wonder by R J Palacio (2012): SPOILER Episode 38
Big (1988, Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Perkins): SPOILER Episode 37
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