Time: 66 Minutes
Cast:
Sheyi Cole as Alex Wheatle
Robbie Gee as Simeon
Johann Myers as Cutlass Rankin
Jonathan Jules as Dennis Isaacs
Director: Steve McQueen

The true story of award-winning writer, Alex Wheatle, from a young boy through his early adult years. Having spent his childhood in a mostly white institutional care home with no love or family, he finally finds not only a sense of community for the first time in Brixton, but his identity and ability to grow his passion for music and DJing. When he is thrown in prison during the Brixton Uprising of 1981, he confronts his past and sees a path to healing.

I was continuing to watch the Small Axe movies, moving onto the fourth movie titled Alex Wheatle. It’s one of the weaker films of director Steve McQueen’s anthology, but its still good.

Alex Wheatle continues to share themes and ideas with the other Small Axe movies, but compared to say Mangrove, it definitely works better as an accompanying piece to those other entries than being standalone. It’s about protagonist and real life person Alex Wheatle finding himself and discovering his roots. It’s a good biopic, telling a powerful story, and it is poignant in parts. It has a fittingly empathetic approach and the story is interesting. However, it definitely suffers from a short runtime at 65 minutes, and it could’ve been a lot longer. It’s not enough to give Wheatle a full rounded character and personality, and it needed more time to flesh out the character. There was a lot of story to tell here; it tries to do a lot in a short space of time, and as a result it was unfocused and incomplete.

There are some strong performances, especially from Sheyi Cole as the titular protagonist.

Steve McQueen’s direction is great as usual. The cinematography and production are skilfully crafted and authentically portray the 1980s.

Small Axe: Alex Wheatle could’ve benefited from a longer runtime, and within the other movies in this anthology, it does feel rather episodic. But it is otherwise a good biopic with a powerful story, well directed by Steve McQueen, and has a great lead performance from Sheyi Cole.