SMALL AXE LOVERS ROCK

 Article first published as TV Review: SMALL AXE LOVERS ROCK on Seat42F.

The second installment in the SMALL AXE series has arrived today. It’s called LOVERS ROCK, and it takes place in the course of a single night. This one is not a grand, historical tale, like the first film in the series, but is instead a much more personal story of a group of young people attending a house party in early 1980s West London. Not allowed into the clubs and beset by racism on the streets, young Black folks of the time instead cleared out the furniture, cooked some food, and set up their own gatherings in the safety of someone’s dwelling. LOVERS ROCK shows one such party.

It’s a testament to how good a film maker Steve McQueen is that SMALL AXE LOVERS ROCK is worth watching. I say this because it contains almost no discernable plot, and without IMDB’s help, I’d be hard pressed to name more than a couple of the characters. Instead, it is a peek at a moment in time, designed to showcase a specific event of the type that was prevalent in a bygone era. Through music and charm and solid direction and lingering scenes, it succeeds in that, and manages to hold viewers’ attention for a full seventy minutes.

As specific as SMALL AXE LOVERS ROCK is, it is also universal. Everyone who attended parties in high school or college can identify the various stages of the event. There’s the excited and nervous preparation, or if you’re hosting, the quiet before the storm as you put in the work and sweat to set things up, fun because of the anticipation of what’s to come. Then people start to arrive, and they look at one another with some amount of trepidation. Friends hang together or find one another. As things heat up, gatherers mingle and begin to pair off differently. Romances blossom and fall apart. Happy people sing along to the music, or even after it stops. The disgruntled friend goes home early. Someone acts out of control and has to be dealt with. Slow dances turn sexy. People begin to drift off. And finally, the manic end of the night where it feels like a dream and you’re spat back out into the world. Then you head to bed, only to have to have to get up too early and face the day, exhausted.

All of this is part of the beautiful rhythm of SMALL AXE LOVERS ROCK, just as certainly as the excellent and era-appropriate soundtrack. A period piece it may be, but it’s also just a portrait of plain, old human nature. Some of the details might be different from one experience to the other, but the recognizable aspects override anything else.

Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn is the closest thing to the star of the film, and this is her first and only credit on IMDB. She handles the role with skill and aplomb. I’m sure we’ll see her in more soon. There are a few faces you may or may not recognize, like Michael Ward (Top Boy), Kedar Williams-Stirling (Wolfblood), and Daniel Francis-Swaby (The Santa Suicides), but the relative anonymity of the cast leads to the authenticity, and there are certainly no current household names present. Yet, there isn’t anyone who feels like they’re acting, either, the world built seamlessly and the actors melting into it.

I find myself surprised to enjoy SMALL AXE LOVERS ROCK as much as I did, given the lack of plot thread, but it is a solid installment, and certainly quite a bit different from the first movie in the series. Check back on this page soon as I cover the rest of the SMALL AXE releases.

SMALL AXE LOVERS ROCK is available now on Amazon Prime.

What is BLACK NARCISSUS?

 Article first published as TV Review: BLACK NARCISSUS on Seat42F.

This week, BLACK NARCISSUS premiered on FX and the BBC. A joint-production, FX marketed it as a creepy show based on the 1939 novel by Rumer Godden. Though, watching the three-episode miniseries, I’m not sure that accurately describes it. In fact, this show is very hard to define exactly what it is or what genre it belongs in.

BLACK NARCISSUS begins high up in the Himalayas with a disturbing opening in a cliffside “house of pleasure,” or that’s what it appears to be, anyway. (The truth is close enough to that.) A tragic event happens. Then, about twenty years later, a quintet of nuns move into the abandoned building to form a school for the locals. The place seems suitable to their needs, though there are just a few strange things that happen, especially to one nun in particular, sort of related to that opening.

I’m halfway through the miniseries as I write this and I plan to finish it. But I’m still not sure exactly what to say about BLACK NARCISSUS when considering it overall. There isn’t a sense of urgency or danger in any real way (except when climbing those railing-less steps). There also isn’t any certainty that something big will happen before the end. I am not familiar with the novel or the 1940s film adaptation, but this seems to be a slow-moving drama without an overriding central narrative, other than running a school, and maybe being haunted just a tiny bit.

The setting of BLACK NARCISSUS is absolutely beautiful. The views from the mountain are, as you might imagine, breathtaking. I don’t have much frame of reference to say how accurate it is, and I wonder about the feasibility of building a ‘palace’ so far up and having other stone-hewn villages nearby. But the design is very cool and detailed, and this certainly seems like a place I would love to visit.

Gemma Arterton (The Girl with All the Gifts) stars as Sister Clodagh, the leader of the little group, and she is very compelling. Sister Clodagh’s inner life is explored through a series of flashes to a different time. It’s unclear if these are things that actually happened or just what she wishes her life to be like. But it’s informative to see her wavering of the mission when outwardly she is so focused and holy. She is doing her best in running the group, and she’s not bad at leadership. Though she can be a bit petty at times.

The rest of the roles are well-performed, too. My second favorite is Mr. Dean (Alessandro Nivola, Chimerica), an immigrant who has blended in with the locals, and who offers handyman support and eye candy for the nuns. I assume he’ll have something to do with how things end, but that’s unclear at the moment. I really like friendly Sister Briony (Rosie Cavaliero, Hold the Sunset), a good moral center and caretaker to the group. Sister Philippa (newcomer Karen Bryson) is intriguing and odd. Sister Ruth (Aisling Franciosi, The Fall) provides the right amount of crazy, pretty shocking, but not so much as it feels weird that she’s still among them. Nila Aalia (Wolfblood) is wonderful as Angu Ayah, the local who lives among the nuns, and seems to be the only one who really knows the secrets of the place.

For the performances and the vistas, I recommend BLACK NARCISSUS. After all, it’s a small time commitment, basically a movie and a half, and those are important elements. My hesitation stems from the lack of clear story, but maybe the second half will pick up? I doubt it. Even so, it’s neat to sit in this world for a few hours.

BLACK NARCISSUS is available to watch in its entirety now on Hulu, through FX.

The SMALL AXE MANGROVE

 Article first published as TV Review: SMALL AXE MANGROVE on Seat42F.

Amazon Prime recently premiered a new series of films directed and co-written by Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave) entitled SMALL AXE. The first of these, MANGROVE, is available now. It follows the true story of The Mangrove Nine, a group of Black people arrested during demonstrations against the Metropolitan Police in Notting Hill, Kensington. So you’ll get a history lesson, a look at immigrant life, and hopefully think a bit about the racial injustice still prevalent in today’s society.

Shaun Parkes (The River) stars as Frank Crichlow, a man from Trinidad who has moved to London. Frustrated in dealing with the police, Frank opens a totally legitimate restaurant called the Mangrove, selling the cuisine of his native land, a.k.a. “spicy food.” But the local constable, PC Pulley (Sam Spruell, The Bastard Executioner), is deeply prejudiced, and decides that the Mangrove must be a place for unsavory characters, raiding it repeatedly for no legitimate reason. This only drives the community to embrace the Mangrove more, the local Black Panthers and others considering the place “theirs,” and things spiral far from Frank’s control. It all culminates during a march against the police in which Frank and eight others are arrested for rioting and affray. Off-screen the case is dismissed, and then tried again at the Old Bailey, a venue for only the most heinous crimes, as the police hope to make examples of the defendants.

SMALL AXE MANGROVE begins as one thing, a story focused on Frank and his restaurant, and halfway though, becomes a courtroom drama with varied protagonists. In lesser hands, this disjointed style and lack of strong focus might feel like a weakness. Instead, through flawless directing and performances, it feels like a complete piece, albeit one with two distinct halves. Yet, it’s also more than that. Frank’s story becomes the story of all these people, and the film enlarges to encapsulate that, minimizing Frank the way he becomes pushed to the background of his own fate. It’s actually a pretty cool move.

Parkes is great, full stop. He is not alone, however, and some of the best moments in SMALL AXE MANGROVE come from others. At the trial, one of the co-defendants, Darcus Howe (Malachi Kirby, Devils) decides he should represent himself. The stuffier lawyers protest, but Ian MacDonald (Jack Lowden, The Tunnel) thinks it’s a brilliant idea. Altheia Jones (Letitia Wright, Black Panther), another person on trial, agrees and decides to do the same. Altheia and Darcus speaking up for themselves is powerful, especially when Darcus plays the legal game better than some of the fully-trained lawyers, winning through logic, not just emotion.

The system is broken, the no one exhibits that better than Judge Clarke (Alex Jennings, The Crown), showing his prejudice right off the bat. But the cause is righteous enough, even he is eventually forced to admit wrongdoing on both sides, which unfortunately echoes remarks by own American president not too long.

That’s what’s so powerful about SMALL AXE MANGROVE, though: it isn’t just a history story. It is relevant today, shining light on the continued issues. This was written and filmed prior to this year’s Black Lives Matter marches, but they make it even more timely. The trial of The Mangrove Nine was fifty years ago, and yet, the problems remain, maybe not in quite the same way, but still very serious. The ending text on the screen reveal Frank’s troubles didn’t end after the trial, as he continued to be harassed for the next two decades. It wouldn’t have been surprising to learn he was still being harassed today, if he were alive. The police were not punished. And though his kids have a better life (you may know of his daughter, actress Lenora Crichlow), that doesn’t mean the problems are solved.

SMALL AXE MANGROVE is an excellent film with compelling characters and a true story that hits home. Even were it not applicable to current circumstances, it would land. The fact that the fight lives on only helps boost its impact. I can’t wait to see what the rest of the SMALL AXE series has in store.

SMALL AXE MANGROVE is available now on Amazon Prime.

NO MAN'S LAND

 Article first published as TV Review: NO MAN'S LAND on Seat42F.

Hulu has a new series called NO MAN’S LAND. The eight-episode drama follows a young Frenchman who goes to Syria looking for the sister his family believe to be dead. Unfortunately, the country is in the midst of a long civil war, so it’s not that easy to go in and find someone, especially as the sister seems to be right in the thick of the fighting. Needless to say, the journey does not go smoothly, and the man ends up being caught up as a prisoner of the YPG, an all-female branch of the Syrian Democratic Forces.

The lead of NO MAN’S LAND is Antoine Habert (Felix Moati, 50 nuances de Grecs), the Frenchman mentioned above. His family is not supportive, or even aware ahead of time, of his efforts, not believing Antoine when he thinks he catches a glimpse of his sibling, Anna (Melanie Thierry, The Zero Theorem), on the news. His wife, Lorraine (Julia Faure, Love Me If You Dare), thinks he’s crazy. But he stubbornly sets off to find her anyway, and thankfully is punished for his efforts. I say thankfully not because Antoine seems like a bad man or that his motivations aren’t pure, but because if someone runs off half-cocked into such a dangerous situation, there should be consequences.

In the premiere episode, Antoine falls in with some wanna-be ISIS fighters. Antoine doesn’t seem to even suspect he’s gotten involved with the exact opposite group that he wants to be with. His naivety and unfounded optimism are rewarded with violence and capture, as he soon falls into the hands of Sarya (Souheila Yacoub, Savages), who seems very dangerous, but not at all evil. So presumably, despite a bit of suffering and no easy way home, Antoine did get lucky.

Honestly, NO MAN’S LAND seems to be a gritty, high-production drama. Things look bleak and dirty, but they should in the location chosen. I have no complaints about the direction or the look of the piece. It seems to do a fair job of transporting the viewer to a different world, though admittedly not one I know enough about to fully judge.

A lot of the criticism lobbed against NO MAN’S LAND runs along the lines that it is made by people who have no experience in the subject matter and who have chosen to focus on foreign perspectives to the story they’re trying to tell. After all, NO MAN’S LAND features an all-women’s force, but the lead character is a man. And he isn’t even a native of the country, nor does he have stakes in their conflict.

On one hand, using Antoine as the core could provide a way in for audiences who, like me, don’t have the experience or framework of the story. But on the other hand, I get the complaints that we need more representation, and this series squanders that chance by who it chooses to focus on. Of course, we have been making show after show forever that are told from a white, male perspective, even if not all the characters are. Yet, that is justifiably changing. So NO MAN’S LAND seems a bit trapped in this debate, arriving at the wrong time to stand on its own.

As a reviewer, I will try to judge it purely on its merits. In doing so, I honestly find it boring and hard to get into. The subtitles didn’t bother me, nor did the Middle Eastern setting. I just was confused about Antoine and his relationships and motivations for much of the pilot. I didn’t like that things weren’t all that clearly laid out, and not recognizing any of the performers, I didn’t feel like I had a hook. None of the characters felt compelling enough to make up for these things, and my attention wondered. That may not be fair, but I really found NO MAN’S LAND didn’t capture my attention, and I likely won’t be watching the rest of the series.

If the premise sounds interesting to you, the first season of NO MAN’S LAND is now available on Hulu.

It's Time For ANIMANIACS

 Article first published as TV Review: ANIMANIACS on Seat42F.

You may be surprised to learn that the original run on ANIMANIACS was only ninety-nine episodes long. It has such an oversize place in our culture that I assumed it boasted more seasons under its belt than that. The gently subversive cartoon that brought original music and adult humor (of the kind that easily flew over kids’ heads) in the 90s is well-remembered by my generation, and found great popularity a few years ago when it arrived on Netflix.

So it shouldn’t be much of a surprise to learn, if you didn’t already know, that the series is back on Hulu this week with the first new batch of new episodes in twenty-two years (and a second season already ordered). That’s right, Yakko (Rob Paulsen), Wakko (Jess Harnell), and Dot (Tress MacNeille) Warner have returned to the Warner Brothers movie lot and moved right back into the tower as if they’d never missed a beat.

The first episode back (the only one I’ve yet reviewed, though I’ll surely watch more) spends a fair amount of time breaking the fourth wall and discussing not only their time off the air, but everything that has transpired since. Some of this is done in original music, with full orchestral accompaniment. Later, the focus is on reboots specifically. Of course it’s funny, of course it’s timely, and of course it’s smart, because that’s the ANIMANIACS brand. It would be insincere for them not to comment on their return, and comment they do, in spades and in song.

As much as the difference is acknowledged, though, the show feels exactly the same. Jokes are topical and fresh, but they were back in the 1990s, too. The brand of humor espoused is unchanged, not quite biting, but not exactly tame, either. Ralph the Guard (Frank Welker) is still chasing the trio and easily being bested. There is acknowledgment that the characters may be a bit more accepting and forward-thinking in a socially liberal way, as the culture has gone, but ANIMANIACS never spent too much time commenting on that, so that doesn’t feel like a focus. And possibly problematic characters like Minerva Mink and Hello Nurse are nowhere to be seen, though not missed.

When it comes to the side stories, though, that’s where fans will likely notice the difference, though not right away. The most successful characters, which garnered their own contemporary spin-off, Pinky (Paulsen) and the Brain (Maurice LaMarche) are fully intact. The pair have the middle of three segments in the new premiere, with updated technology, but little else different for them. (The opening and closing segments are given over to the Warners.) But the theme song indicates we shouldn’t expect to see Slappy Squirrel, the Goodfeathers, Buttons and Mindy, or the others anytime soon. They’ve been cut from the show. The opening credits only hint there will be new characters, but other than a fresh network exec, none are revealed in episode one.

Unsurprisingly, a saxophone-playing Bill Clinton is also absent for the opening title sequences. References to W., Hillary, and Trump are in the first episode to acknowledge there may be some political jabs, though it’s doubtful there will be any true opinions expressed about such people. So worry not those who aren’t looking for culture wars in their cartoons. Celebrities and pop culture characters are familiarly referenced.

In short, the differences are minor, and though I’m anxious to see what the new side segments are, the premiere is a return to form. I’m sure it will perfectly give most people tuning in exactly what they want. ANIMANIACS doesn’t seem likely to jar fans or disappoint. I do wonder how long more-of-the-same will be able to continue, but for the moment, I’m just glad the Warners are back on television.

The first new season of ANIMANIACS premieres Friday, November 20th on Hulu.