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In 2013, Black director Steve McQueen made 12 Years A Slave. His movie won the Oscar for Best Picture, but he didn’t get Best Director. But you know how good his movie is.
You might be surprised that in 2020, McQueen released *five* movies. None of them got hyped.
Thread.
You might be surprised that in 2020, McQueen released *five* movies. None of them got hyped.
Thread.
"Small Axe" is the name of the collection of five films, all now up on Amazon Prime. McQueen directed them all, stories about experiences of PoC and immigrant communities in England. They are deeply human, freaking great, and wildly different in the parts of life they cover.
The first is Mangrove, about a Jamaican-owned community restaurant targeted by white supremacist police. They resist in the streets, in their homes, and eventually in court. Alex Billington rightly called it what The Trial of the Chicago 7 wanted to be. https://mobile.twitter.com/firstshowing/status/1340729758917808128
Mangrove is the finest example of fiction about wronged people who stand up to being persecuted in court that I have ever seen. And the ensemble is unbelievable. Shaun Parkes, Letitia Wright, Richie Campbell, Sam Spruell… they are characters that stick to your ribs.
Now maybe you think Small Axe will be all misery porn.
Enter: Lovers Rock. Shorter and looser, it's about a house party to raise funds for the community. It is a Slice of Life film, about everyone’s small slices and the need for escape into music.
Enter: Lovers Rock. Shorter and looser, it's about a house party to raise funds for the community. It is a Slice of Life film, about everyone’s small slices and the need for escape into music.
Remember how engrossing it was to be *at* the wedding in Rachel Getting Married and the family gathering at Summer Wars? Lovers Rock is like that.
There is such care given to everyone’s internal life. Everyone who cooks, cleans, needs the escape of dance or hook-ups – everyone is alive, everyone has context that bangs into someone else’s context.
My favorite scene of the year is when everyone keeps singing. No spoilers.
My favorite scene of the year is when everyone keeps singing. No spoilers.
Content Warning for Lovers Rock: there is a sexual assault. It gets interrupted and the victim is believed and made safe and *cared for*, but it happens.
Lovers Rock is the best reviewed of the Small Axe movies, with a 95/100 on Metacritic and 98 on Rotten Tomatoes.
Perhaps you're catching why I'm so jostled that nobody's talking about these movies.
And there are three more!
Perhaps you're catching why I'm so jostled that nobody's talking about these movies.
And there are three more!
Do you like John Boyega?
Of course you do.
Are you pissed that Hollywood misused and hosed him?
Well he gets the most robust role of his career in Red, White, and Blue. Boyega crushes it.
Of course you do.
Are you pissed that Hollywood misused and hosed him?
Well he gets the most robust role of his career in Red, White, and Blue. Boyega crushes it.
Boyega plays the son of a Jamaican immigrant. His father has been targeted for police harassment before, and Boyega grows up to join the police hoping to change them from the inside.
McQueen unflinchingly shows how a single officer cannot change a system. It doesn't lie.
McQueen unflinchingly shows how a single officer cannot change a system. It doesn't lie.
Throughout, the movie's heartbeat is the painful harmony between father and son, as the father sues the police for abuse while the son struggles against them from within. They never stop sympathizing with each other, no matter how wide their gap is.
Remember that ALL THESE MOVIES are basically free to you if you have Amazon Prime. It's ridiculous Amazon isn't yelling about them everywhere.
The 4th film is Alex Wheatle. It’s tighter, a biopic that is more like an origin story of a great YA author who grew up from nothing to give people so much.
Alex begins in foster care, with no emotional support and few places to turn. He struggles with the law, but not like you think. It’s about how *while hurting no one*, simply living at the bottom makes him a target for the law no matter what he does.
The movie is about surviving that kind of targeting. But it’s also about Alex's love of music, and finding his pride, and claiming the history that the foster system wouldn’t give him. There's a beautiful echo I won't spoil, where he takes the narration away from the narrator.
The final film is Education. I can't tell you about it because I haven't seen it yet. I'm watching it tonight.
But maybe you'll check out some of these and expand your heart. Steve McQueen is that good. His work is a generous gift.
But maybe you'll check out some of these and expand your heart. Steve McQueen is that good. His work is a generous gift.
