The film critic Jeremy Clarke recommends new and forthcoming films for church discussion groups

Films of all shapes and hues can be great for provoking discussion in church groups. You can watch them in the cinema and debrief later, or gather round the TV and discuss a DVD. Here are some of the best current releases for this purpose. They are all films with something to say – something of interest to Christians. Enjoy a film together and ask some questions of each other. What do you like and dislike about it? How does it make you feel? What is its worldview? Does this film challenge you? Inspire you? Do you disagree with it? Is its message one which Christians will want to challenge, or spread, or listen to? Happy watching! Happy talking!

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In the Cinema
I, Daniel Blake (cert 15, 100 mins) is Ken Loach’s blistering attack on the UK welfare system. Aged 59, Daniel (Dave Johns) is told simultaneously by his doctor that he mustn’t work because of his heart condition and by the DWP that he must work because he’s fit. Despite being willing to work he finds himself thwarted by state bureaucracy at every turn. He befriends the equally frustrated lone parent Katie (Hayley Squires) who is trying to get money to feed her kids. Loach paints a frightening portrait of what’s happening to needy and vulnerable people in modern Britain…

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This is an extract from the November 2016 edition of Reform.

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