Looking for Eric (2009)
Hmm, I have mixed feelings about this one. It's like Ken Loach started making this sweet romantic comedy about a down-on-his-luck postie who decides to get his life back together and win back the only woman he ever loved... then he went on holiday halfway through, came back and continued making a film about inner city gangland violence.
I loved the first half. It is genuinely funny and quite touching. Especially the bits with "Meatball" (John Henshaw, who completely steals every scene he's in). Then it goes and gets all unpleasant. I understand the point Loach is trying to make, and I don't mind gritty or violent movies, I just didn't think it worked here.
Le Temps du Loup (The Time of the Wolf) (2003)
Post-apocalyptic Michael Haneke film about a family who have been somewhere, and they're coming back from wherever they went, and now they're going somewhere else, only they have to wait a really long time for a train (which may or may not be coming).
You're not really spoonfed details in this film. You know something has gone wrong with the world. Maybe it's the water supply, or maybe the French unions are on strike again. It could be either. The film is about how people cope in a completely uncontrollable situation. I liked it, although it's really, really, really dark (I mean the lighting, not the content... but I guess you don't have electric lights in the apocalypse). It's like what the BBC's remake of Survivors should have been like.