The second installment in Steve McQueen’s upcoming Small Axe anthology film series, kicked off by LFF opener Mangrove, poses to be an intriguing diving board of sorts. While all films in the anthology are based on a West Indian proverb that goes “If you are the big tree, we are the small axe”, Lovers Rock shows us that McQueen is never one to be tied down. Set in a different environment, with a totally new tone and set of characters compared to Mangrove, yet unequivocally sharing the same themes and overall base proverb, Lovers Rock proves that with this new series, we’re in for an incredibly fresh cinematic treat, a promising light in the dark of 2020.
At the turn of the decade, a house party in Ladbrooke Grove, West London becomes the place to be for one night in 1980. Organised by a tight knit group of friends, when the DJ booth gets set up, bucket loads of lovingly prepeared food is put out, and an imposing yet loveable bouncer guards the door, the dancing, good times and revelry kick off with no end in sight. However, while it’s a party for some, for others things don’t go quite as well as hoped.
The term anthology being used to describe the Small Axe series makes a lot more sense when this film enters the mix. Following no particular main character nor plot line, McQueen simply encapsulates a night in the life of a black community celebrating. That being said, the character of Martha, portayed by Amarah-Jae St Aubyn in a great acting debut, acts as sort of a conduit through the plethora of sharply dressed good time revellers, ultimately forming a touching connection with Franklyn (Micheal Ward). Their inital introductions before the party, the former nervous and the latter cocky, make for an engaging and unpredicable opening.
Their blossoming romance also creates a juxtaposition against the darker elements that occur. Throughout the night, siren sound effects played inbetween songs by the DJ’s unintentionally signal a kind of foreboding sense of police involvment, which, after the previous Small Axe film Mangrove, is likley to spell trouble. While that keeps viewers on edge amidst the dancing and fun, short glimpses of the garden also get the mind wondering, especially when we see Kedar Williams-Stirling’s seemingly considerate character lead an unsuspecting date down to the bottom of it. All these little dour moments brilliantly set the audience off what they’ve come to expect, meaning there’s always a level of intriuge at play as well as feeling like they’re right there in the party too.
As with Mangrove, the idea of a world outside that of the one our characters have created and the audience finds comfort in is touched upon here, albeit briefly. As Martha’s friend Patty (Shaniqua Okwok) heads outside for some air, we’re immediately taken out of our comfort zone as she’s shouted at by a group of white teenagers. While only a short scene, it delivers a sense of disgust and dread that so effectively makes us want to immediately head back inside and keep dancing. Once we get back into that microcosm, and needle drops on the Carl Douglas classic ‘Kung Fu Fighting’, an almost etherial sense of euphoria engulfs the characters, and we can almost smell the Red Stripe and sweat.
An unpretentious, effective and brilliantly authentic musical piece with a strong message (perhaps not as hard hitting as Mangrove‘s) not only of inequality, but love and freedom, McQueen is on an absoulte roll here. In a time when the cinematic experience feels like it’s in more danger than ever before, his innovative anthology series could be the saviour that keeps us film lovers afloat until a return to normal, with thought provoking and simple, beautiful filmmaking.
4/5
Lovers Rock will be released on BBC iPlayer and BBC One this autumn. While there’s not a trailer for the film itself, check out the first look at the entire Small Axe series below.
Thank you for staying tuned throughout my coverage of this year’s BFI London Film Festival. Catch up on all my coverage here, and follow me on Letterboxd here to see what I’m watching.
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