TV Review - Small Axe: Alex Wheatle

This is the fourth installment in the series by writer-director Steve McQueen. It follows Mangrove, Lovers Rock and Red, White and Blue. McQueen's goal with this series seems to be to paint a portrait or provide a realistic and authentic look at the Afro-Caribbean community of London, England, in the 1960's into the 1980's. He's done so by telling the real-life stories of certain real-life people of that community. He's mainly doing docudrama and his subject this time is another real-life person. Like with Mangrove, this film focuses on a Black man who was arrested following a protest and clash with police. Both this film and Mangrove appear to be McQueen's British response to the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States, a recognition of the kinship and parallels that have been happening not only in the United States but in the United Kingdom as well. As I alluded to in my review for Red, White and Blue, American cinema has had several, if not tons of films deal with the inherent issues raised by the Black Lives Matter movement, films such as Do the Right Thing (1989) and Straight Outta Compton (2015). This series is basically McQueen doing the Black British version of those films.

Sheyi Cole, in his screen debut, plays Alex Alphonso Wheatle, a young Black man who is imprisoned after his role in the 1981 Brixton riot. That riot was a protest and violent clash with police. Now, one would have to have seen Mangrove because the reasons for that 1981 riot aren't really explored here. Mangrove explains the tensions between the Black community and police in London in the years leading up to it, but the specific explanation or spark that caused the 1981 riot here isn't as deeply explored. There are passing references to the reasons for the 1981 riot, but it feels very superficial here. There are black-and-white photos in a montage that seems like it was pulled from a documentary, but it only hints at what some people from that area know better than anyone not from the UK.

It seems odd that McQueen would frame this film around Alex's arrest and not provide much context or explanation for that arrest. It seems as if he simply wanted it as a framework to depict the younger years of this guy who would later go on to become a prolific author. McQueen clearly has a lot of respect or love for this guy and simply wants to be the first to commit his life or at least part of his life to the screen. While Alex goes to prison, he encounters a Rastafarian cell mate with bowel movement problems. Alex hates it in there and is broken down, forced to relate his younger years to the Rastafarian.

The majority of the film is depicting those younger years, leading up to his eventual arrest. None of it involves the politics or the political situation that caused the riot and the arrests. It's mainly about Alex's life in the foster care system and being raised until he was a teenager by white people or people who don't have the background or culture of the Afro-Caribbean community from where he originates. Eventually, when he got out of the foster system and started interacting more with that community, it becomes quite the culture shock or identity crisis for him.

On one hand, it's about a young man not having the street smarts and thus not the same outlook when it comes to the police as the other young Black men around him. I thought McQueen's film might do more with that aspect than he does. In a way, Alex has to learn how to be "Black," as he has to learn how to adopt urban culture. It feels as though the film might be akin to Strictly Business (1991) or Class Act (1992), which are films that tackled the issue of the Black bourgeoisie. This film though in a sense is tackling the issue of the African diaspora but on a more microcosmic scale of showing one Black boy removed from his people and his culture who has to then find his way back or find his roots as it were.

However, the end of this film sets up what will be the next and last installment. It felt tacked on, but the Rastafarian all of a sudden goes on about how Alex needs to get his education. It's taken from an incident that really happened to Wheatle, so it's not untrue, but it still felt more as a connector to the next installment then an organic ending to this film.

Rated TV-MA.

Running Time: 1 hr. and 5 mins.

Available on Amazon Prime.