Alex Wheatle

I prefer it over Lovers Rock, but in some ways this left me even more cold than that one did.

This one, more than any other in this series so far, is most about the black community specifically, so as a white person, a lot of the language and culture simply flies straight over my head. Obviously that shouldn't be different just for my benefit - I think it's pretty obvious that first and foremost, this series was made by black people, for black people, and I wouldn't want to change that, but it does mean that some of this is alienating to me.

Speaking a bit more objectively, I think that this really could have benefited from having a longer runtime, as at only an hour and five minutes, it does often feel like it's racing through the motions and skipping over quite a bit, but Alex as a character is still pretty relatable and likable to me.

It's just that once you get the sense that he's been properly integrated into the black community, there's not much else to this narratively, because of course he's going to get out of prison and become a successful author, he's based on a real person who is a successful author.

But for all my whining, this is still just as well acted, shot, and directed as anything else in this series, and at least you can never say that any scene feels a bit pointless with this kind of runtime, unlike Mangrove.

But you know...there's so many scenes that could have had a point that just aren't in here, so...still Mangrove ftw.

I have relatives who are multiracial. They always tell how they never feel completely at ease with one group or another. The feeling of never completely belonging or being accepted.

This strikes a chord in Alex Wheatle. He grew up in white foster homes and white care homes. He experiences racism from the white kids and his carers.

When he moves to Brixton at the age of 18. Alex is a fish out of water. He knows little about his parents or his black identity.

Alex stands out in the black community from the way he dresses to the way he speaks. He befriends Dennis who becomes his mentor as they dabble in petty theft and drug dealing. Eventually Alex gets some success by DJing.

The story of Alex Wheatle is framed as he enters prison for taking part in the Brixton riots of 1981. He ends up in a cell with Simeon a big rastafarian who has the runs. The prison cell stinks of faeces.

Simeon coaxes Alex's story out of him and he becomes another mentor in prison. Simeon gives Alex books to read which inspires him to write.

Steve McQueen really gets the whiff of the early 1980s Brixton and particularly of that prison cell. It is small scale but is beautifully crafted.

I never knew that Alex Wheatle is based on a real person until after the end credits. He is a successful YA novelist who was awarded a MBE.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

After a lifetime growing up and suffering abuse in the care system, Alex Wheatle (Sheyi Cole) moves to Brixton, where he embraces his culture and discovers his true identity, as a reggae singer. However, some negative experiences lead to him taking part in the Brixton riots of 1981, leading him to serve a short prison spell, but thankfully he was able to turn his life around and become an accomplished author, and was even awarded an MBE for services to literature.

Director Steve McQueen's penultimate entry in to his SA anthology takes a tough subject to examine, whose story as a London black youth mirrors that of Birmingham's Benjamin Zephaniah, an artist more closer to home for me. A lifetime of misfortune further hampered by negative treatment from society at the time, McQueen still manages to find a stream of upbeat positivity.

Like the rest of his post Mangrove short n' sweet efforts, McQueen approaches the subject matter with an unconventional style, taking a seemingly straightforward story and infusing it with something that lifts it above, most notably a voiceover delivering a poem while black and white photos of The New Cross fire and subsequent protests play on screen. Going back in time, like the other SA films, it depicts a time of open racism, using modern young actors who've grown up in a time when it's been driven underground, and so sound a little awkward and unconvincing saying it, making it look a bit naff rather than shocking. Thankfully, the same can't be said of the lead star, infusing his performance with a natural charisma that carries it along fine.

Unlike the previous Red, White and Blue, McQueen is thankfully able to round this off with a positive outcome for his lead protagonist, showing how positive change can be in society and the individual. And throws in some nice reggae tunes for balance.****

The first real disappointment of the Small Axe series, Alex Wheatle was still well acted, well directed and enjoyable as a whole, but the story could and should have been a lot better explored. Again, whilst there were good elements, the story just felt really bare-boned. In the film Mank, Herman Mankiewicz says 'You cannot capture a man's entire life in two hours. All you can hope is to leave the impression of one.' If that's the case, you surely can't capture someone's life in slightly over an hour. The short runtime undercuts any real emotional connection I could have had with any of the characters. The performances are good and I was starting to enjoy the film more by the end, but by that point it was too late. I really appreciate the film from a technical standpoint, and I would still recommend it because of the really good direction and strong ending that somewhat saves the film from being legitimately bad rather than what it is; decent, but disappointing.

"Alex Wheatle," about the coming of age of the titular novelist, is a somewhat lacking entry in Steve McQueen's "Small Axe" anthology of five movies storywise--not because what is there is uninteresting, including the police brutality that typifies most of the "Small Axe" productions, but because it seems more incomplete than some of the other and longer pictures of the series. Its end feels more like an intermission or midway point. Plotwise, it's the most intricate of the five, though.

In it, Wheatle is imprisoned after the 1981 Brixton uprising, much of which is depicted by still photographs of the real events along with poetic narration. The rest of Wheatle's story is told by him as a flashback to his prison cell mate, further layered by the records of his upbringing that he later reads, as well as by his foray into music and that he's to become a writer. Ironically, too, it's the narrative of the past of an orphan who seems to have no heritage and who struggles to fit into either the communities of black or white, English or West Indies, cops or criminals--a theme that is also highlighted in McQueen's prior "Red, White and Blue" (2020). There's a lot going on that could've benefited from a runtime of more than barely over an hour. The title cards at the end describing what next happens for Wheatle feel like missing scenes.