The Washington Post Weekend - USA (2020-11-27)

PG

THE

WASHINGTON

POST

.

FRIDAY,

NOVEMBER

27, 2020

Movies

the human figure.

McQueen’s vocabulary is on

particularly glorious display in

this lambent gem of a film. “Lov-

ers Rock” takes place over the

course of one night in West Lon-

don’s West Indian community in

1980, when the titular musical

style — a sensuous reggae sub-

genre — was at its height. As the

film’s characters congregate to

dance, eat, drink and flirt, an

everyday house party becomes

something soaring and transcen-

dent, an earthy celebration of

freedom, self-expression and ro-

mance that feels less like a movie

than an ecstatic trance.

If there’s a plot to “Lovers

Rock,” i t centers on Martha (Ama-

rah-Jae St. Aubyn), the young

woman we see at the film’s begin-

ning. She and her friend Patty

(Shaniqua Okwok) meet at a n ear-

by playground then make their

way to the party, which is in full

swing when they get there. Mc-

Queen, who wrote the script with

Courttia Newland, has a keen eye

for the subtle come-hither glances

and furtive gestures of seduction:

Eventually, Martha begins to

dance with a charismatic stranger

named Franklyn (Micheal Ward),

and the night u nfolds before them

with the beckoning allure of the

unknown.

That sense of enticement also

comes with an element of danger;

the viewer is never quite sure

when the escalating energy might

spill into violence, especially

where the men are concerned. But

that sense of destabilization feels

just as true to life as the pure

pleasure that McQueen luxuriates

in and invites the audience to

share, whether in the perfectly

Small Axe 

PARISA TAGHIZEDEH/AMAZON PRIME

Micheal Ward, left, and Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn in “Lovers Rock,” the second installment of “Small Axe,” Steve McQueen’s series of five films.

BY ANN HORNADAY

I

n “Lovers Rock,” we see a

young woman surreptitiously

sneaking out of a house, her

shoes in her hand. Mean-

while, a group of young men clear

furniture from the main room of

another London house, making

way for a turntable and speakers.

In the kitchen, women begin to

prepare curried goat and callaloo,

laughing and singing as they

bump into each other in the bus-

tling, cramped space.

It’s not immediately clear

what’s going on here. But in the

sensitive hands of filmmaker

Steve McQueen, the point of

“Lovers Rock” becomes mesmer-

izingly clear. Since making his

astonishing feature debut in

2008 with “Hunger,” McQueen —

whose 2013 film “ 12 Years a Slave”

won best picture — has devel-

oped a cinematic language all his

own. It’s a vernacular that’s si-

multaneously expansive and mi-

croscopically detailed; ruthless,

and filled with tenderness and

compassion. And it’s purely vis-

ual, especially when it comes to

the way McQueen — whose roots

are in the contemporary art

world — observes and deploys

McQueen’s finely honed anthology

curated clothes, furnishings and

textures that form the movie’s

gorgeous backdrop, or a stunning

moment, midway through the

proceedings, w hen a popular song

comes on and the partygoers

break into their own rapturous a

cappella version.

It’s a levitating sequence, and

typical of McQueen’s gift for com-

position, pacing and liltingly

graceful camera movements: As a

heart-stopping juncture, it’s of a

piece with the unbroken 17-min-

ute shot in “Hunger” when IRA

activist Bobby Sands debates with

a priest over the morality of em-

barking on the hunger strike he

knew might kill him. And it’s

consistent with the patience and

assurance with which McQueen

has composed “Small Axe,” the

five-film anthology of which “Lov-

ers Rock” is the second install-

ment.

Although “Lovers Rock” is

based on McQueen’s memories of

the “Blues parties” he and his

family attended (Martha is in-

spired by one of his aunts), the

other films in “Small Axe” are

much more specific and fact-

based: “Mangrove,” which de-

buted last week, chronicled the

197 1 trial of cafe owner Frank

Crichlow (Shaun Parkes), who

had been routinely harassed by

the London police until being ar-

rested for incitement to riot; “Red,

White and Blue” stars John Boye-

SEE SMALL ON 16

Auteur’s five-film series

is a powerful act of

restorative justice

DES WILLIE/AMAZON PRIME

Shaun Parkes in “Mangrove,” which chronicles the 19 71

trial of a cafe owner charged with inciting to riot.

WILL ROBSON SCOTT/AMAZON PRIME

John Boyega’s officer tries to change the

system in “Red, White and Blue.”