# My Name Is Joe
*My Name Is Joe* is a 1998 British drama directed by [Ken Loach](https://www.edgepedia.org/ken-loach), written by Paul Laverty, and starring [Peter Mullan](https://www.edgepedia.org/peter-mullan) as Joe Kavanagh, an unemployed recovering alcoholic in Glasgow who coaches a hopeless amateur football team and falls in love with a health visitor, Sarah Downie (Louise Goodall).[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/my-name-is-joe/) • [2](https://www.europeanfilmawards.eu/efa-movie/my-name-is-joe/) It premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival on 15 May 1998, where Mullan won the Best Actor Award, and opened in London on 6 November 1998.[3](https://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/my-name-joe)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / writer | Ken Loach; screenplay by Paul Laverty, his second collaboration with Loach after *Carla's Song* (1996)[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/my-name-is-joe/) • [2](https://www.europeanfilmawards.eu/efa-movie/my-name-is-joe/) |
| Setting | Council estates in one of the poorest areas of Glasgow; also filmed in Inveraray, Scotland[4](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/1999/films/my-name-is-joe) • [3](https://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/my-name-joe) |
| Lead performance | Peter Mullan won the 1998 Cannes Best Actor Award (voted unanimously); the film was also nominated for the Palme d'Or[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/my-name-is-joe/) • [5](https://miff.com.au/festival-archive/films/21909/my-name-is-joe) |
| Runtime / release | 105 minutes; Cannes premiere 15 May 1998, London release 6 November 1998[3](https://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/my-name-joe) |
| Critical reception | 89% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 28 critics; 86% audience score[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/my_name_is_joe) |
| Awards | Three British Independent Film Awards in 1998: Best British Independent Film, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay[7](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0151691/awards/) |
| US box office | $346.7K gross in the United States[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/my_name_is_joe) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Joe Kavanagh is a 37-year-old unemployed Glaswegian who has been sober for about ten months and attends [Alcoholics Anonymous](https://www.edgepedia.org/alcoholics-anonymous), where the film's title phrase is spoken.[2](https://www.europeanfilmawards.eu/efa-movie/my-name-is-joe/) • [8](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/my-name-is-joe-1999) He fills his days with odd jobs and coaching a chaotic team of unemployed friends, described in promotional material as the worst football team in Glasgow.[2](https://www.europeanfilmawards.eu/efa-movie/my-name-is-joe/) He meets Sarah, a community health worker, after a near car crash while collecting his nephew Liam (David McKay) for a match; she later hires him to wallpaper her flat, a cash job that causes trouble with the dole office (UK government office distributing unemployment benefits), and a cautious romance develops.[9](https://www.sojo.net/magazine/may-june-1999/just-glimmer-hope) • [5](https://miff.com.au/festival-archive/films/21909/my-name-is-joe)
The relationship is complicated by Liam and his partner Sabine (Anne-Marie Kennedy), young parents and recovering addicts. Because of Sabine's continued drug use, Liam owes money to dealers run by the local crime boss McGowan ([David Hayman](https://www.edgepedia.org/david-hayman)).[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/my_name_is_joe) To protect Liam, Joe agrees to make drug deliveries for McGowan, a choice that forces him between the 12 steps of AA and, in Roger Ebert's phrase, the harder steps he learned on the street.[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/my_name_is_joe) • [8](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/my-name-is-joe-1999) When Sarah discovers his involvement, she leaves him, and Joe faces a predicament in which continuing to help McGowan saves Liam but costs him Sarah.[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/my_name_is_joe)
## Production
**Financing and schedule.** Channel Four commissioned the screenplay; a year later producer Rebecca O'Brien raised the rest through European pre-sales, and Channel Four bought the UK television rights for half a million pounds rather than investing in the whole film. The project ran two years from commission to the Cannes premiere.[10](https://www.theguardian.com/film/1999/jan/30/features2) Production companies included Parallax Pictures and Road Movies Vierte Produktion, with co-production partners in Spain, France, Italy, and Germany.[3](https://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/my-name-joe) • [11](https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/19960247/My_Name_is_Joe_AVPP.pdf)
**Casting and method.** Loach, working in the neo-realist tradition he had followed since films such as *Kes*, used professional actors for the leading roles but filled the supporting parts with local people: Joe's football team was played by Glasgow residents, many with backgrounds in crime and addiction, and the opening AA scene used members of a real AA group.[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/my_name_is_joe) A former addict and drugs counselor from the Glasgow Community Drugs Project, John Hammill, advised on the film and played the AA meeting chairman.[10](https://www.theguardian.com/film/1999/jan/30/features2) Laverty spent time with health visitors while researching the script, and their accounts of young people they had looked after fed into Liam's storyline.[10](https://www.theguardian.com/film/1999/jan/30/features2) Loach shot the film in sequence, beginning with Joe's flashback, and gave actors only their own pages of script so their reactions stayed spontaneous.[10](https://www.theguardian.com/film/1999/jan/30/features2) • [12](https://cadenaser.com/nacional/2026/06/17/el-heroe-de-la-clase-obrera-cadena-ser/)
The crew reused Loach's regular collaborators: cinematography by Barry Ackroyd, editing by Jonathan Morris, production design by Martin Johnson, and music by [George Fenton](https://www.edgepedia.org/george-fenton).[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/my-name-is-joe/)
## Style and themes
The film applies Loach's low-key, naturalistic style to a story of addiction, unemployment, and class. Critics noted its washed-out color scheme, understated score, and dialogue heavy with Glasgow slang, which American releases subtitled.[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/my_name_is_joe) • [13](https://www.metrotimes.com/arts/my-name-is-joe-2281808/) Unusually for Loach, it includes a flashback that briefly breaks the documentary-style realism he usually aims for.[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/my_name_is_joe)
Thematically, the film contrasts Joe's bare-boned flat and life on the dole with Sarah's steady career and new house, and uses their unfulfilled relationship as a metaphor for how inadequately society addresses the problems that keep people like Joe in addiction.[9](https://www.sojo.net/magazine/may-june-1999/just-glimmer-hope) Reviewers also pointed to the failing institutions around the couple: an overworked doctor's surgery that turns Sabine away, police unable to protect the poor from dealers and loan sharks, and a benefits system that costs Joe a week's payments for a few hours of work.[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/my_name_is_joe)
## Reception and awards
Roger Ebert gave the film 3.5 out of 4 stars, writing that the ending left him stunned, "so unexpected, and yet, in its own way, so logical, and so inevitable."[8](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/my-name-is-joe-1999) Anthony Lane in *The New Yorker* praised Mullan's "combative, unsentimental performance" as making Joe's slow ruin "not just credible but unavoidable."[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/my_name_is_joe)
Beyond the Cannes Best Actor Award and [Palme d'Or](https://www.edgepedia.org/palme-dor) nomination, the film won Best British Independent Film, Best British Director, and Best Original Screenplay at the 1998 British Independent Film Awards, the Danish Bodil and Robert awards for Best Non-American Film, and a London Critics Circle Award for Peter Mullan as Best British Newcomer of the Year in 1999.[7](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0151691/awards/) • [3](https://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/my-name-joe) It was later listed among the [British Film Institute](https://www.edgepedia.org/british-film-institute)'s top 100 British films by one audience poll.[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/my_name_is_joe)
Mullan's performance drew on his own upbringing in a working-class family with an abusive alcoholic father; the same year he made his directorial debut with *[Orphans](https://www.edgepedia.org/orphans-1998-film)*.[14](https://www.screenslate.com/articles/my-name-joe)
## References
1. [MY NAME IS JOE, Festival de Cannes](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/my-name-is-joe/)
2. [MY NAME IS JOE, European Film Academy](https://www.europeanfilmawards.eu/efa-movie/my-name-is-joe/)
3. [My Name is Joe, Encyclopedia.com](https://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/my-name-joe)
4. [My Name is Joe, International Film Festival Rotterdam](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/1999/films/my-name-is-joe)
5. [My Name Is Joe, Melbourne International Film Festival archive](https://miff.com.au/festival-archive/films/21909/my-name-is-joe)
6. [My Name Is Joe, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/my_name_is_joe)
7. [My Name Is Joe (1998) Awards, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0151691/awards/)
8. [My Name Is Joe movie review, RogerEbert.com](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/my-name-is-joe-1999)
9. [Just a Glimmer of Hope, Sojourners](https://www.sojo.net/magazine/may-june-1999/just-glimmer-hope)
10. [The making of My Name is Joe, The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/film/1999/jan/30/features2)
11. [My Name is Joe, University of Edinburgh research portal](https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/19960247/My_Name_is_Joe_AVPP.pdf)
12. [El héroe de la clase obrera, Cadena SER](https://cadenaser.com/nacional/2026/06/17/el-heroe-de-la-clase-obrera-cadena-ser/)
13. [My Name Is Joe review, Metro Times](https://www.metrotimes.com/arts/my-name-is-joe-2281808/)
14. [My Name is Joe, Screen Slate](https://www.screenslate.com/articles/my-name-joe)
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 1990s › Drama films late 1990s › Released 1995 to 1998*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license