review for Ladybird, Ladybird on AllMovie

British realist filmmaker Ken Loach takes a scalpel to the "based on a true story" school of filmmaking with this unrelenting tale of domestic strife and a government that unwittingly perpetrates it. Despite the casting of Crissy Rock, a former stand-up comic with no prior acting credits, Ladybird, Ladybird is almost devoid of the casual humor prominent in many of the director's other snapshots of British working-class life. Instead, Rock and Loach create a portrait of a warm but deeply flawed woman whose attempts at love and stability are undermined by a legacy of abuse. The punishments that Rock's Maggie suffers at the hands of Social Service agencies are heart-rending, but not altogether undeserved. The film's grim, grainy, unforced look is in keeping with Loach's content-over-form aesthetic.