The Angels' Share Reviews

If you want to look for it, you'll find a layer of metaphor (the distilling process as a symbol of the characters' evolution) and social-realist commentary amid the gentle, life-affirming laughs.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

Drink it up!

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

[Ken Loach] and his longtime screenwriter, Paul Laverty, find a good balance between drama and wacky character moments.

Full Review

The title, by the way, refers to the distillation process: the 2% of whisky that evaporates in the barrel is known as "the angel's share." I'm afraid there's more than 2% evaporation going on in Loach's latest.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

Much like a stiff drink at the end of a long day, "The Angels' Share" gets the job done, but you're probably not going to remember it in the morning.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

Loach's realism lends an easygoing, ramshackle quality to the film that smoothes over any lack of tightness.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

Director Ken Loach's latest glimpse of the U.K. underclass is really two rather different movies, either of which I would've enjoyed on their own. But they don't really fit together in any satisfying or even logical way.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

A fairy tale with its feet firmly on the ground.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

Whether Robbie pulls off his caper should be left for the audience to discover. But Loach's great cinematic switcheroo goes off almost without a hitch.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

As heartwarming and uplifting as any tale could be that features vicious beatings and grand larceny.

Full Review

While it has some likable characters, particularly its charismatic lead, it's impossible to shake the feeling that we've seen this movie before.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5.0

Lead actor Paul Brannigan, the product of Glasgow's working-class East End, is a natural.

Full Review | Original Score: B plus

A lark, but it's a serious-minded lark, addressing issues of class and culture, the haves and have-nots.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4

Charming enough to satisfy even the trenchant-commentary crowd.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

The usual Loachian elements are all in place, but there is a gentle spirit at work here as well, and not just the alcoholic spirits around which the plot revolves.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

The Angels' Share is a stellar bit of activist cinema with a light touch.

Full Review | Original Score: 8.2/10

The plot thickens, but the mood grows lighter.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4

Unexpectedly, and blithely, amusing.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4

Sweet-natured and high-spirited, it's a fanciful fable with a wee dash of magical realism.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10

This is one of the most likable movies so far this year.

Full Review | Original Score: B-