January 14, 2021
Small Axe is an anthology of five films by writer-director Steve McQueen about the lives of West Indian immigrants in London during the 1960s and 1970s. I was only able to watch the first two films for now.
The first film is "Mangrove," after a curry restaurant established by Frank Crichlow (Shaun Parkes) in Notting Hill in 1970. All the Caribbean immigrants gather there for the good food and fellowship. However, the police led by PC Frank Pulley (Sam Spruell) did not like these gatherings and would conduct three violent raids on it.
The activists in the area, including Altheia Jones-LeCointe (Letitia Wright), Darcus Howe (Malachi Kirby) and Barbara Beese (Rochenda Sandall), organized a rally, which did not end peacefully. The Mangrove 9, as they were called, were tried in court of Judge Edward Clarke (Alex Jennings) for inciting a riot and affray.
The second film is "Lover's Rock," which was set in a single night at a house party in West London in 1980 where Franklyn (Micheal Ward) and Martha (Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn) first met each other. Apart for certain scenes of conflict, there was not much story being told in here, however, that was not really the main point of this.
The best moments of this film were the communal dance raves to 70s hit dance songs like "Kung Fu Fighting" by Carl Douglas, and the uber-sensual "Silly Games" by Janet Kay (which lasted long after the record stopped playing). They were shot beautifully in tight close-up, capturing the charged-up exhilaration of those all-too-fleeting moments. 7/10
Sibil Fox Richardson was a middle-aged businesswoman and mother of six boys. Twenty years ago, pushed by financial desperation, she and husband Robert committed armed robbery at a local bank and were arrested for their crime. While she was out in a little over 3 years, her husband got a sentence of 60 years in the Louisiana State Pen.
This documentary used original footage combined with home videos to good dramatic effect. Mrs. Richardson struck me as quite the convincing salesperson, both in her business and her advocacy to get her husband out earlier. To her credit, she was able to raise her boys by herself, even when left to her own devices. She definitely knew how to play up the drama in her life purely to her advantage.
However, granting that her husband seemed to have gotten an excessive sentence, she also conveniently left out some very important details. What dire situation pushed them to resort to armed robbery? What actually happened during the robbery? She was not averse to self-aggrandizement as she likened the prison system to slavery and she was the abolitionist. These aspects did not sit too well with me. 5/10
It was the 1950s in Harlem, New York. Jazz band saxophonist Robert Halloway (Nnamdi Asomugha) met the striking upper-class debutante Sylvie Parker (Tessa Thompson) who was tending her father's record shop. Sylvie was already engaged to marry a rich guy Lacy, but she still fell for Robert's blue-collar charms. However, Sylvie gets herself pregnant just as Robert's band landed a gig in Paris.
The very premise of this film was pure melodrama. In its 2-hour running time, writer-director-producer Eugene Ashe milked every known soap-opera playbook about secret sacrifices done in the name of love. There were progressive aspects, like Sylvie landing the post of a TV show producer, but most of the other story details were rehashed old-fashioned cliches.
The period production design, jazzy musical score and songs, and nostalgic cinematography were all very good. The actors were attractive and did well in their roles, despite what their characters were made to say or do. Ultimately, the problem was in the story itself, hardly generating any excitement as one familiar trope followed another. 5/10
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