Lovers Rock | |
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Directed by | Steve McQueen |
Screenplay by |
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Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography | Shabier Kirchner |
Edited by |
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Music by | Mica Levi |
Production companies |
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Distributed by | |
Release dates |
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Running time | 68 minutes |
Countries |
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Language | English |
Lovers Rock is a 2020 romance film directed by Steve McQueen and co-written by McQueen and Courttia Newland. It stars Micheal Ward and Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn. [1] The film was released as part of the anthology series Small Axe on BBC One on 22 November 2020 and Amazon Prime Video on 27 November 2020. It premiered as an opening film at the 58th New York Film Festival on 24 September 2020.
Two lovers meet at a reggae house party in 1980 in West London.
The film was selected for the 2020 Cannes Film Festival alongside Mangrove , but the Festival was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [2] The film later premiered at the 2020 New York Film Festival, which was held virtually, alongside Mangrove and Red, White and Blue . [3] [4] It screened at the 64th BFI London Film Festival on 18 October 2020. [5] It premiered on BBC One and became available for streaming on BBC iPlayer in the United Kingdom on 15 November 2020, [1] and became available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video in the United States on 20 November. [6]
"Lovers rock" was the name of a musical genre popular around the mid-1970s in London, but its influences were transatlantic, as were its reaches. [7] The film is named after the genre and plays some of the most popular songs throughout the movie, such as "Silly Games" by Janet Kay. The genre, which coupled the heavy reggae basslines popular in Jamaican music and the soft-soul vocal harmonies originating in Chicago and Philadelphia's R&B scenes, forged unique spaces of freedom common in young Black people of the time whose families were immigrants. [7] [8] This musical influence across space and between diaspora communities represented what Paul Gilroy theorized as the "Black Atlantic", a culture that exists outside of nation-state boundaries. [9]
Review aggregator Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 95 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". [10] On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 98% based on 103 reviews, with an average rating of 8.79/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "A singular viewing experience that perfectly captures a moment in time, Lovers Rock is a lovingly-crafted ode to Black joy." [11] The entire Small Axe anthology was nominated for Best Miniseries or Television Film at the 78th Golden Globe Awards. [12]
Angelica Bastién of Vulture.com called Lovers Rock "undoubtedly one of the best movies of the year...a transfixing romance not just between the two characters at its center but one about the beauty of the human body, the succor of an energetic party, and the possibility in the hush of a night." [13]
The film appeared on several critics' top ten lists of best films from 2020. [14]
Sir Steve Rodney McQueen is a British film director, film producer, screenwriter, and video artist. For services to the visual arts, he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2011. In 2014, he was included in Time magazine's annual Time 100 list of the "most influential people in the world". He has received an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards and in 2016 the BFI Fellowship.
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Micheal Ward is a Jamaican-British actor and former model. His films include Blue Story (2018) and The Old Guard (2020). On television, he appeared as Jamie in the Netflix show Top Boy and The A List. Ward was awarded the 2020 BAFTA Rising Star Award.
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Alex Wheatle is a 2020 historical drama film directed by Steve McQueen and co-written by McQueen and Alastair Siddons. It stars Sheyi Cole as Alex Wheatle, a Black British novelist who was sentenced to a term of imprisonment after the 1981 Brixton uprising. The film was released as part of the anthology series Small Axe on BBC One on 6 December 2020 and on Amazon Prime Video on 11 December 2020.
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