Education

For me the strongest individual Small Axe movie, and a good finisher for the series. Highlights one more battleground in which the community had to band together and stand up for their rights in order to overcome systemic discrimination, one step at a time.

Something I'd been mulling over while watching these is if the order of watching them should be followed by the numerical designation or chronology of period date. I'm not sure where "Alex Wheatle" belongs, but "Education" feels perfect at the end. Its insistence on cultural knowledge as it pertains to identity is a fitting punctuation mark.

Far and away the best of the series, focusing intently (and heartbreakingly) on institutional racism within the education system. More clear eyed and pragmatic than the other entries, but not lacking several emotional gut punches – like some of the other chapters, this might have benefit from an expansion to feature length – I would have loved to see Whyte, Simon and Ackie pursue their concerns right up to Thatcher! Beautifully performed by all and sharp and concentrated like a good short story.

Maybe the weak spot in Small Axe, but still so rewarding in the way it feels socially and culturally deep and somewhat personal.

So that's why my class mates used to make animal sounds... Bad jokes aside, this was a solid social problem film.

Viewed January 29, 2021.

The Acting is amazing, the child actors all knock it out of the park. Steve McQueen's directing is perfect. He knows how to hold shots and what body parts to zoom in on to get the most amount of emotion from a scene. The only real issue is when the script takes its focus off of Kingsly to look at the system as a whole. The rest of the anthology was able to use it's character to look at the system, but for someone who is going to school, Kingsly feels oddly divorced from anything going on in it.