By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Steve McQueen
Starring: Asad-Shareef Muhammad | Ashley McGuire | Elliot Edusah | Fumilayo Brown-Olateju | Jonathan Jules | Robbie Gee | Sheyi Cole
Original language title: Small Axe, Season 1 - Episode 4
Country: united_kingdom
Year: 2020
Running time: 66
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3464896/reference
Part of the Small Axe Amazon Prime series
Michael says: “Sadly, the penultimate film in McQueen’s quintet is the nadir for me. Perhaps having watched all five in fairly close succession, I was just feeling a little burned out on the struggle against oppression of the worst kind. It’s ironic that the one film named after it’s subject, is the one that keeps at the furthest distance from him. Alex had a rough childhood, passed from foster home to foster home, sometimes cruelly abused, until finally making his way as an inexperienced young man in Brixton. While he’s thoroughly British in demeanor, and is light-heartedly but pointedly mocked by his new pals, he immediately relates to the language and reggae music of the West Indian culture he finds there. He eventually finds his place in the culture he so admires, leading his own reggae DJ duo, but his success comes from the drug distribution trade, which presumably lands him in prison, where we first encounter him in the film. His bitterness and anger fuel much of the film, and it seems somewhat tacked on at the end, when he realizes his fate and turns toward writing. Weatle was a successful young adult author.