That was an excellent one.

Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Joe (Peter Mullan) is a guy who has seen it all before. A former alcoholic, he kicked his habit. Now he is unemployed but is paradoxically very active since he trains a little football team and interests himself in young Liam who has a brush with the local underground for a story of unpaid drugs with his young spouse Sabine. He falls in love with Sarah, a social worker who brings them help and support. The two people fall in love whereas to help Liam, Joe is ready to break the law and to do shady jobs for the mobsters. Will his relationship with Sarah be affected by this?When he places his camera in the popular neighborhoods of a big city eaten away by unemployment, Ken Loach is the defender of the outcasts who are very strongly linked by friendship and mutual support, like Joe here with his tiny football team. Loach refuses to feel pity for them and shots the outset of his film with energy and generosity. Where he also grabs the audience and impresses her is his master at supple cinematographic writing. "My Name is Joe" starts up first time with a humorist perspective that the filmmaker will try to keep to the maximum. You have to see Joe and his sidekick who pretend to be professional house painters to Sarah's. Then, as Liam and Sabine's trouble grow and with Joe's decision to help them, the tone becomes darker, blacker and is here to remind us that we are in Loach's universe. His characters in spite of their big efforts are caught up in a sad fate. In the end, Loach runs the whole gamut of tones with ability in a quite gloomy plot.The arresting performance of Peter Mullan helps to make Loach's 1998 film more appealing and it's one to discover or rediscover.

I finally got the DVD today in the mail, so I could watch this film. Now I'm from the Netherlands and my English is pretty good, but my Scottisch is not so good (thank god for the subtitles lol). But, I did get the general message, which is pretty global. What Joe is dealing with, trying to stay sober and creating a good life for himself and his "family". Its very recognizable.The acting was brilliant, and very very honest and realistic. There just aren't enough films like these. One's with REAL stories to tell, real life stories. What is so wrong with watching reality? Normal life is hard enough, and its OK to show that. We don't always have to see all the glitter and glamour of Hollywood.People go see this film, if I had ten thumbs, I would give him ten thumbs UP.Thank you Mr. Mullan and all the others working on this film for this beautiful honest film.

The awesome realism of "Once Were Warriors" (New Zealand, 1994), successfully transposed to Glasgow, Scotland.Solid, decent human beings use alcohol and drugs to "cope" with life. But, life only gets worse, loyalties are brutally tested, and one poor unfortunate will not survive. But, don't think this to be another flaccid piece of cliched, anti-drug drivel. No, this film speaks powerfully to the perverse, and often vicious, arbitrariness of life. Darwinians, of course, will be unmoved. The rest of us, however, will be chilled by the scale of our impotence in making this world a better place. Prepare yourself to feel humbled.

I gave this film eight out of ten after seeing it but my estimation may have risen since then. This film is well scripted, completely believable and you can empathise with all of the characters (something which in my opinion is the test of a film). The story moves from the tender to the comic to the bleak and gritty and holds the viewer throughout. I am looking forward to seeing more of Ken Loach's work.