Ken Loach's kitchen sink slice-of-life drama focuses on a young Barnsley boy as he trains a falcon while preparing to leave school and enter working life. 'Kes (1969)' is a proper Yorkshire movie, its characters' thick and honest accents occasionally requiring a quick rewind, and it's this actually provides a lot of its charm, especially as someone who grew up in the area. It's a grounded, level-headed experience that still manages to be entertaining. The social commentary at its core is almost (though not quite) subtextual, which allows for the film to be taken on a surface level and enjoyed for what it is (that isn't a bad thing, by the way). Still, it's not as if the picture isn't resonant. It's both funny and heartbreaking, evoking a nostalgia for a time and place that most modern audiences won't have lived in. It resonates rather deeply because its core story is almost universal. Ultimately, it's an enjoyable, realistic and unique (thanks mainly to its underrepresented setting) tale of childhood. 7/10
Review of Kes
