Bread and Roses

Ken Loach tackles the largely unexplored territory of Hollywood janitors and the politics behind cleaning contracts.

...Ken Loach is not the kind of director to confuse his real story with the love story; he knows that no matter what happens between Sam and Maya, the janitors are still underpaid and the strike is still dangerous.

...filming in LA hasn't diluted his anger at social injustice. The David-versus-Goliath subject matter, which sees a group of poor immigrant workers struggle to gain basic union rights, is entirely in keeping with Loach's work.

...a powerful, occasionally didactic but deeply resonant film dealing with the plight of migrant laborers.

...there are (...) enough unexpectedly dark moments scattered throughout to keep the whole thing from lapsing, fatally, into kitsch for progressives...