Social realism

I tried to watch Ken Loach's 2009 film "Looking for Eric" on Channel 4, I really did. It seemed like an entertaining premise - a Manchester postman being visited by football legend-cum-philosopher Eric Cantona in a cannabis-induced alternative world to the grim reality that is his real life.

But I could not get through the grim "reality". A basic rule of drama is that something or somebody should engage your interest or sympathy early, and there was nothing about the total squalor Loach wallowed in for the first 10-15 minutes that made me the slightest bit interersted in what might happen next.

I have never understood "social realism" in art and believe it should be known as "social pornography", except that nobody pays to see it. It has only survived as long as it has thanks to state subsidies and the adulation of lowmid pseuds in the leftist media.