5/5
Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock is an absolutely glorious entry into his Small Axe anthology of films. Once again, McQueen captures all of the textures and sensations of a specific moment in time – where the previous film in this series captures the course of several years, this captures just a few brief hours. The camera glides across the dance floor, placing us in the midst of the dancers, allowing us to observe, to get caught up in the music, the rhythms, the emotions of the moment. The “Silly Games” sequence that comes at about the halfway point of the film is one of the most amazing moments of cinema – full stop. McQueen slows down time in a way that only film is able to do, giving us that sensation that comes when you first fall in love, when everything else falls away, but at the same time you’re hyper-aware of everything around you. And he does it all by simply letting his camera float through the room. It’s breathtaking. But this dance party isn’t all connection and love and joy. The racism we saw on display in the first film threatens to intrude in a few key moments, and we’re also briefly witness to the perils of being a young woman in this community. While the darkness is quickly vanquished, its presence is integral to the tapestry McQueen is weaving – the sorrow and the pain, the oppression and the suffering all go hand-in-hand with the joy and the connection. And sometimes, as in this chapter, joy and love will win the day.
