Bleak, dignified, patient, angry — Sorry We Missed You is one of Ken Loach’s finest contributions to working-class fiction. Turning his lens on the gig economy, the film portrays a Newcastle family battered into crisis by the inexorable logic of the market, struggling with zero-hours contracts. Thanks to a meticulously researched script and the authentic performances of non-actors, Sorry We Missed You is a devastating indictment of our economy.

The film opens with a bit of black humor as Ricky (Kris Hitchen) interviews for a zero-hours contract driver position at a fictional company called Parcels Delivered Fast. Watching Ricky sell his labor to the callous manager, Maloney (Ross Brewster), we are introduced to the gig economy’s most mystifying promise: you get to be your own boss. This enticing offer comes with impossible expectations designed to “sort the fucking losers from the warriors.”

A former construction worker, Ricky rattles off a seemingly endless list of skills that he has honed through a lifetime of craft. We learn later in the film that he was laid off during the 2008 financial crisis, losing his home and becoming a renter. At the root of his isolation is pride: “I’ve never been on the dole. I’d rather starve first.” For Loach, Ricky is a particular example of a more universal experience: the loss of secure, skilled work. We follow his fourteen-hour routes, six days a week, as determination erodes into exhaustion under the invasive discipline of big data.