New York Film Festival: Ken Loach's 'I, Daniel Blake' gets its U.S. debut at a critical national moment

The honor and struggle of the working class is a staple of auteur cinema -- in modern days, via some of the works of the Dardenne brothers and Mike Leigh and, in earlier times, with classics such as "The Bicycle Thief." But few directors do neorealism like Ken Loach. And few Loach movies arrive at a more propitious moment than the British director's latest, "I, Daniel Blake." The surprising (to some critics, really surprising) recipient of this year's Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, "Blake" made its U.S. premiere at the New York Film Festival on Saturday ahead of its American release in December. It comes as income inequality has dominated a presidential election cycle and driven various forms of populism across Europe.