Low Key

Lovers Rock, the magnificent second film in Steve McQueen's Small Axe series, takes viewers inside a 1980 house party filled with young British and Caribbean people, looking for love. As the party unfolds, we realize this small get-together, DJ'd by the immaculate Mercury Sound System, is fraught with politics: Why don't these Black young people feel welcome at clubs? Why can't they wander too far from the house without being accosted by local hoodlums? And what are the sexual and class dynamics at play?This makes it sound like Lovers Rock is a heavy-handed message movie — and it's the opposite. Steve McQueen has the lightest, deftest touch, and lets the story flow so freely you barely detect the film's arc until it's swept over you. Lover's Rock is a seductive mix of emotions as smoothly delivered as the songs the Mercury crew spins all night. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.