Review: Small Axe

"Small Axe: Lovers Rock." Image courtesy of Amazon.

The fifth part of Steve McQueen's ambitious series of five films known as "Small Axe" - which is now available in full on Amazon Prime - is titled "Education," although the name of this final part of the series is applicable to all five parts.

Set in the late 1960s through the mid-1980s in London's West Indian community, "Small Axe" tells a series of stories - none of which are connected, but all of which have thematic ties - of a type that is rarely told in the cinema. McQueen's five films - which vary in length from just a little over an hour to over two hours - made me realize how rare it is that cinematic stories about the lives of West Indies immigrants are told, and the result here is enlightening.

The film takes its title from a Bob Marley song, which contains the lyric, "if you are the big tree, we are the small axe." In the case of McQueen's films, the big tree is white London society and the West Indian residents are obviously the latter.

The films vary from the political to the personal - and, in some instances, both. The first episode - "Mangrove" - is the longest and the most overtly political. Set in late 1960s London, it tells the story of a man named Frank Critchlow (Shaun Parkes), a Trinidadian man who runs a Notting Hill restaurant that becomes a de facto meeting place for the local West Indian community.

Frank's place is constantly tormented by the police, especially a racist cop named PC Frank Pulley (Sam Spruell), whose endless raids and violently abusive behavior finally send Critchlow over the edge. He and a group of local activists, including British Black Panther Althea Jones-Lecointe (Letitia Wright), hold a protest and march that results in the arrest of a number of activists. They go on trial, and much of the film is about their court case, and how several of those involved represent themselves.

The most written about - and celebrated - of the "Small Axe" films is "Lovers Rock," an hour-long reggae party that serves as a backdrop for the budding romance between Martha (Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn) - who sneaks out of her bedroom window to join her friend, Patti (Shaniqua Okwok), and attend the party - and Franklyn (Michael Ward).

During the course of the evening, we watch a kitchen full of West Indian women make tasty looking food for the party, and listen as the exuberant DJs play a variety of reggae tunes, all the while touting themselves over and over. One of the songs they play - "Kunta Kinte Dub" by the Revolutionaries - proves to be so popular that they play it over and over again. A show stopping moment during the party involves the playing of Janet Kay's 1979 lovers rock tune "Silly Games" in its entirety, only to cut the record as the entire dance floor then sings the song all over again a cappella in its entirety.

There's some drama - Franklyn and Martha prevent a rape - but the finale involves a quiet bike ride home from the party, Martha sneaking back into her room and some reflection on her part about the night. It's a lovely way to end the most unique entry in "Small Axe."

My personal favorite of the five films is the third part - "Red, White and Blue" - in which an excellent John Boyega plays Leroy, a forensic scientist in the 1980s who wants to join the London police force. In an earlier scene, we see his father, Kenneth (Steve Touissant), telling some cops to leave Leroy, at the time a young boy, alone after Kenneth is late in picking him up from school.

Kenneth is later harassed and beaten up by several police officers, resulting in a court case in which he demands an apology for the way he is treated. Leroy wants to join the police force to bring change from within, and when he goes for his interview, much is made of this possibility. Once he's actually on the force, he realizes this is easier said than done. Other than a Pakistani man on the force who's a friend, most of the other officers are white, and many seem to resent Leroy's presence.

During one particular scene of anguish, Leroy almost gets injured chasing a criminal, and he gets no response when he calls for backup among the white officers, who vary from being quietly resentful toward him to openly racist. His superior officers don't seem particularly interested in his complaints. "Red, White and Blue" culminates with a powerful moment in which Leroy and Kenneth, who has since come to terms with his son's career choice, discuss whether change can actually come from within, or whether it's better to just "burn it all down."

The series' fourth part, "Alex Wheatle," is another political drama, and among the most straightforward of the bunch. It follows the titular character, Alex (Sheyi Cole), a scrawny young man, during his first day in prison, where he meets his gassy roommate, nearly gets into a fight with him and then settles into telling his story.

Growing up in foster homes and institutions, Alex eventually moves into a flat, where he befriends a younger couple. Dennis (Jonathan Jules) mocks Alex for his style of dress, but eventually helps him settle in, showing him the local record store and setting him up in the drug selling business. This, of course, eventually leads him to trouble and jail - but we learn in the final moments of the picture that Alex went on to become a writer who published numerous books in England.

The final film is, in many ways, the saddest. Titled "Education," it tells the story of a young boy named Kingsley (Kenyah Sandy), who lives with his immigrant parents and older sister in London in the 1970s. Although smart, Kingsley occasionally gets into trouble in school and can barely read, although he's 12 years old. He is transferred to a so-called "special school," where students are sent to sit behind desks with little supervision and learn absolutely nothing.

When a local activist comes to the door of Kingsley's house to tell his mother, Agnes (Sharlene Whyte), how West Indian children are sent to such schools because white-operated schools don't want to bother with them and, therefore, leave them with little in the way of an education after going through the school system, Agnes at first doesn't want to hear about it. But after realizing that her son can't read, she gets involved with a local group that wants to challenge the school system, but also includes Saturday classes for students who have been left behind. "Education" is a stirring little drama, shot in the style of the British "kitchen sink" dramas of the 1960s.

McQueen's series is a deeply engrossing, righteously angry, often sad, occasionally playful and all-around very well acted slate of movies. "Lovers Rock" is the most distinctive of the bunch, although - as I'd mentioned - "Red, White and Blue" is the most powerful and my personal favorite and "Education" the most poignant. All five of the movies, however, are very good. 

"Small Axe" is one of the year's best film projects - it falls somewhere between a very long movie told in five parts and a TV show - and further proof that McQueen is one of the UK's best filmmakers. Although all five films in the series are set in the past, they are all relevant today in their focus on racism, the plight of immigrants and telling the stories of those often unseen by mainstream society. "Small Axe" involves commitment and effort from its viewers due to its running time, but it's well worth the investment.