How do people think this is a good film?

The acting is embarrassing all the way through. The message is incredibly imbalanced, it doesn't address the wider context of welfare or how the failings of the human condition applies to each part of the system. Its not at all cinematic and doesn't even try to be - as if being as gritty and raw as possible makes it more important or powerful. It really doesn't - it just shows up the bad acting, how imbalanced it all is, and wastes a bigger opportunity.

My guess is that people are highly suggestible to the funeral speech at the end, get teary, then mistakenly think the film was amazing when looked back at through that thin emotional veil.

I've met people who also suggest that loving this film somehow equates to feeling passionate about the issues it raises. It doesn't. You can fully appreciate the importance of the issues, and the hopelessness of the UK welfare system, whilst still recognising I, Daniel Blake as a poorly made and dull film.

Every single episode of channel 4's "999 What's Your Emergency" series moved me to tears - because you see and empathise with real people in real situations, and absorb an accurate idea of whats really going on in Britain. I really don't need to see a fabricated, imbalanced and poorly acted story to appreciate its message (and people who do must be incredibly ignorant to begin with).

Surely a documentary about real people would have been far more powerful?