Steve McQueen is quite possibly one of the best directors working today, 12 Years a Slave and Widows are quite frankly incredible films and some of the best films I’ve seen. So when I saw that some of his Small Axe films were being shown at the London Film Festival, I had to check them out. Due to scheduling I could only check out Lovers Rock and while watching it, I thought to myself that while not Steve McQueens greatest film its still a really good and enjoyable film.
The events of the film span across one night and mainly takes place at a house party during the 1980’s. My biggest issue with the film is actually not an issue with he film and an issue with me. I don’t understand the time period and the culture the film is representing, for one I wasn’t bore in the 80’s and well I’m not well versed in the culture it is trying to explore. That being said I still really enjoyed the film overall. The characters feel like real people and everything that happens feels believable. The direction is incredible which isn’t shocking, the film is just really stunning and its very well edited. All of the acting is really great also. I don’t think there’s a single bad performance. Everything fit the time period well from what I could tell and it felt and sounded like the 80’s. While I wasn’t fully in love with Lovers Rock, I still really enjoyed it and I’m really excited too watch all of the other small axe films and actually I’m excited to rewatch Lovers Rock to see if I enjoy it more on the second watch.
