Alex Wheatle (2020)

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Alex Wheatle movie poster

Alex Wheatle is a British historical drama and it is the fourth film of the "Small Axe" anthology series from the director Steve McQueen. This 66 minutes movie tells the true story of award-winning writer, Alex Wheatle (Sheyi Cole), 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. This movie released on 6 December 2020 (United Kingdom) and 11 December 2020 (United State). It starring

  • Sheyi Cole as Alex Wheatle
  • Asad-Shareef Muhammad as Young Alex Wheatle
  • Robbie Gee as Simeon
  • Johann Myers as Cutlass Rankin
  • Jonathan Jules as Dennis Isaacs
  • Elliot Edusah as Valin
  • Khali Best as Badger
  • Fumilayo Brown-Olateju as Dawn
  • Dexter Flanders as Floyd

Plot

Khali Best, Sheyi Cole, and Jonathan Jules

Alex Wheatle is treated poorly in a children’s home by nearly everyone around him; the white children bully him for the color of his skin and his enjoyment of reggae, while the adults jump at the chance to verbally and physically abuse him. Things change when Alex leaves their care to move into a hostel in Brixton. Despite his unfashionable clothes, earnest Surrey accent, and initially unquestioning sense of respect for authority, Alex is taken under the wing of an older friend named Dennis , who decides to teach this wide-eyed young man how to view society with a more cautious and critical eye.

When he’s beaten up by cops for daring to talk back and left in a field far from home, he channels his hurt and his anger into powerful verses. And, after a number of young Black people die in a fire at a house party, and the police refuse to explore the possibility of racially-motivated arson, Alex joins the people of Brixton in the streets for an uprising. Young Black people armed with little more than their fists and objects picked up off the street, up against an actual army of cops with full riot gear…it’s a scene we’ve witnessed so many times, then and now, and remains powerful even as we bemoan why society created the conditions for it to happen.

This cellmate of Alex’s was a real-life figure; his encouragement helped Alex start reading and then writing, and also led him to seek out his birth family. Now the author of 15 books for young adults, many of which borrow from his childhood in social services and his youth in Brixton. That McQueen and his co-writer Alastair Siddons managed to fit this entire journey of self-discovery into a 66-minute film without it ever feeling rushed is remarkable.

Black Empowerment

Alex Wheatle’ is the fourth part of Steve McQueen’s ‘Small Axe’.

The movie depicts how a young black man who was discovering himself in the midst of black oppression and racial. He made 15 books for young adults, many of which borrow from his childhood story in social services and his youth in Brixton. Because of Simeon, Alex's cellmate, his encouragement helped Alex start reading and then writing in the cell. Simeon says “education is the key…if you don’t know your past, you won’t know your future.” which mean the past about racism in the UK who doesn't eliminate it just because denying the existence of racism today. And it make Alex grows to admire the stubborn, proud man who gives him a pile of books wo makes him as author now. [1]

Controversy

The movie potrays the story how Alex get racist behavior and violence even from his childhood."Beaten in a children’s home and beaten in school, Alex’s background (played as a child by Asad-Shareef Muhammad) is marked by casual violence and deeply entrenched racism."[2] While sharing the discovery of reggae music at school with classmate Valin (Elliot Edusah), he gets into a fight with a racist white student and is hauled out by security. And they arrest and place him in restraints and knock him to the floor in an isolated room. "It's as succinct a depiction of the harsh dehumanization and stirring consciousness of a brutalized minority as I can recall".He also gets his first glimpse of the overtly racist activities of the London police, seeing random stop-and-frisk harassment or unprovoked attacks that make him ridicule his naive assumption that the cops are here to help.[3]

Reference