Jimmy's Hall

Ken Loach’s final fiction film is a spirited account of a 1930s Irish social club that becomes a bastion of jazz and free-thinking, angering the Church.

Returning to Ireland from 1930s New York, Jimmy (Barry Ward) is swayed by local townsfolk to reopen his old social club, which soon becomes a hotbed of imported jazz moves and socialist discourse, much to the dismay of the local Church and establishment.

Reported in advance of its Cannes premiere as being Ken Loach’s final fiction film (although he later backtracked on this), this is no elegiac swansong from the grandee of British leftist cinema. Instead the director simply sets his stall in typically spirited style, revealing the hypocrisy of 20th-century anti-communist sentiment in refusing to tolerate even the most benign ideals of fun and fraternity. Despite this serious undertow, Jimmy’s Hall is one of Loach’s most light-hearted films, dotted with dynamic dance scenes and the director’s customary comic touch.