Steve McQueen is throwing a rockin' party, and we're all invited.
Being chained to this radiator for months, I seem to recall plenty of lively nights at fantastic parties. Places cut off from space and time where the vivid vibrations are so dense and in infinite supply, they enter your body by way of music and effervesce through you and out your feet by way of dance. A half mad cavalcade of mellows, freaks, dancers, drifters, lovers and assholes all stuffed in a room or house together and for one night all their differences are put aside as they get swept up by the high and lucid wave. And since parties are outlawed now (as if anyone really listens to the government) the only party I can go to is in my memories or in films – or alternatively load up on as many horrible chemicals as I can get my hands on and have a ball with these terrible hallucinations.
Steve McQueen is throwing the coolest party around and we’re all invited, bring your best clothes, some joints rolled and surrender yourself to the whisky waves of Mercury Sound. Lovers Rock (2020) is the grooviest display of a party on film I’ve seen in a while, capturing with marvellous skill, the life of the party from chilled out to chaos. Centred around a reggae party in 80’s West London, I was invited to see everything; the preparation, people getting ready, the journey, the party and then slipping away. Arriving at the party I opened myself up to the scene and mingled among the crowd, watching the joyous faces of people dancing while others lurked and prowled on the edges in search of a mate. As some of the characters began interacting with each other, there was a perceptible sense of tension building up alongside the momentum of the party, as creeps began to hit on some of the women. What you must remember is that a party isn’t just dancing and having a good time, often the troubles from outside will slip through underneath the door and make a mess. A perfect balance of mirth is set against the intolerable vibrations that resonate off the problems that are waiting for you outside or within your midst. Forget all of that, take refuge on the dance floor and let the music clean you up.
The camera paints the frame in warm hues of yellows, reds and blues carousing atop each other in a haze of weed smoke to make pink ever once in a while. This glowing colour palette is a visual feast and a heavenly sphere for all the twisted, intoxicated people who’ve found themselves here. People’s clothes were just as funky with bright, eye-catching primary colours and some pretty damn groovy patterns and threads. I was thrown vicariously through the camera right in the middle of the event, as it mingles through the crowd, bobbing like a tipsy person in the embrace of drink and dance. As the party turns into madness, people high as a kite raving and thrashing off the walls and onto the floor, in the grips of ecstatic chaos, the camera takes on this mayhem too, whip panning from one character to the next, stumbling and spinning as the party turns into what I’d describe as the nuclear fuelled core of a star.
The characters developed the more time I spent with them, swaying around them and watching their reactions to the creeps that harangued them. With the sheer number of people that are at this party, I felt I only identified with each character to a certain limit, which was as much as I could get to know them in the time I was given to spend. Exactly like gyrating through a crowd at a party, moving from one person to the next, and if you happen to find someone you want to hang out with more, get their number and see them next time.
The driving rhythm of this jamboree is spinning on the turntable right now, the DJ carrying out feet and pulling the floor from underneath us, leaving us in merrymaking levitation. The music they played from their enormous stack of records was fabulous, and paired with the visual vibe of the place, it really resonated the freewheeling style of the 80’s. Every track they played had me tapping my feet and pirouetting across the floor.
Part of his Small Axe anthology about the lives of black people during 60’s-80’s London, it’s a beautiful display of their community getting together and doing something that’s common among all humans, having a good time. With all the characters black, the miniscule handful of minor white roles I did see went from barefaced terrible racism to the subtle badly disguised sort that’s ingrained within white folk.
It’s no surprise this film has topped so many polls for the best film of the year, and if you’re longing for a bash or have completely forgotten what one feels like, this film should refresh your memory.
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