One of the highlights of this year’s New York Film Festival has been watching Steve McQueen’s new film anthology “Small Axe.” NYFF chose three of the five films featured in the upcoming BBC series, “Lovers Rock” “Mangrove” and “Red, White and Blue.” The first two were chosen for competition for Cannes 2020 before the festival had to be canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The latter is having its world premiere at NYFF and was just screened for press.
What I have gathered so far from this series is how each individual movie is an intimate slice of life of a little-represented community, British Black people from the West Indies, living their lives amidst a racially hostile environment. While “Lovers Rock” was this formally bold love story set inside a house party, and “Mangrove” depicted a Black community-fighting in court against racist cops, “Red, White and Blue” is a little murkier in the narrative it exudes on-screen. It is also the second film, after “Mangrove,” to tackle the systematic racism of the London police force.
Dealing with Leroy Logan (John Boyega), a forensic scientist, who decides to join the police force, much to the disappointment of his father, McQueen’s film, based on a true story and co-written by Courttia Newland, feels a tad too familiar for its own good. “Mangrove” had already showcased the systemic rot that lurked in the British police force, but in grander and more successful ways. “Red, White and Blue” clocks in at a thin 79 minutes.
The uneasy relationship between father and son signifies the second story arc in the film. As Logan joins the force, his dad is in the middle of a court battle, with that same organization his works for, after being harassed and severely beaten by cops over a nonexistent traffic violation. This event only enhances the importance of being a cop for Logan, he believes changing the system starts from within, his dad disagrees and believes the problem cannot be fixed by one person alone. Logan comes to experience that racism within the confines of the system, his aspirations are quickly dashed when he starts getting racially harassed himself by his cohorts who aren’t too keen on working with a black man.
Shooting on 35mm, with the help of cinematographer Shabier Kirchner, McQueen uses a more compact aspect ratio to tell his story here. This is an admirable tale of perseverance, even if it ends up being a rather predictable one. The pacing of the film is very cramped by trying to cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time, stuffing important details in strangely rushed-upon fashion and time jumping at weird moments. The script by McQueen and novelist/playwright Newland is also filled with expository writing — there is a knack to describe, explain, define, inform, and clarify motives. This, in turn, make “Red, White and Blue” successful in its observational details, but hackneyed in its overall message. [B-]