High-stakes crime goes low-tech and broadly funny in "The Angels' Share," the opening-night movie of the 2013 Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival.

Veteran director Ken Loach, usually a purveyor of politicized working-class gloom, lightens up in this bittersweet Scottish comedy. Four jobless Glasgow hooligans doing community service learn of an ultra-rare cask of whiskey going to auction and decide to steal the priceless malt. Their cheeky amateurism is endearing (how many master thieves hitchhike to the crime scene?) and the nonprofessional cast is so authentic that "English" subtitles translate their formidable accents. If you want to look for it, you'll find a layer of social-realist commentary amid the gentle, life-affirming laughs.

The film won the Jury Prize at Cannes 2012. Screenwriter Paul Laverty is scheduled to attend. (7:30 p.m. Thu., St. Anthony Main, 115 SE. Main St., Mpls., followed by a party at the Aster Cafe. Tickets for the evening are $50 general admission, $40 for Film Society members. Advance ticket purchases at www.mspfilmfest.org are recommended, as the screening is expected to sell out.)

COLIN COVERT